In addition to Eggs-perimenting, this year we gave just as much consideration to the time involved in coloring eggs as to the factors that make coloring eggs so much fun and enjoyable for our family. In an effort to avoid making any part of the coloring process a waiting game, we hard boiled our eggs way ahead of time and introduced the colorful card game of UNO to our own family’s tradition. So armed with a PAAS kit and a deck of UNO we embarked on a vibrant memory making journey that lasted hours.
The kids wrote names, made lines and designs with a wax crayon on the eggs while we lined up our cups and tablets and located the white vinegar hiding in the very back of the cabinet. They were inquisitive and wanted to know what each item would be used for. The tablets sounded the most magically because they would produce the color.
Now tell us, who doesn’t get excited watching the PAAS color tablet fizzle in vinegar? And right before our childrens’ eyes the tablet we thought would possess yellow revealed bright green, it was so shocking to them. Wire egg holder in hand, they couldn’t resist poking at the tablet to break it up into smaller pieces. As soon as the tablet dissolved and water was added our kids eagerly grabbed eggs from the counter and plopped them in, not without splashing, but that’s how you learn to be gentle.
There were only five cups of dye available at a time for our two cherubs. While the first batch of eggs were bathing we played a hand of UNO. Then, we checked the color explaining the longer an egg sits in its bath the deeper color.
UNO hand, egg check, UNO hand, egg check, ensued…
The kids were excited to make the call on the color intensity of their eggs and scooped out their own only when they felt it was just right. Into the bath plopped batch two of eggs and the UNO game resumed. We continued this way until all the eggs were colored and they needed to dry. Our PAAS kit came with stickers so we played some more UNO until it was time to get busy with those.
We never felt like we were rushing through the process or that the children were too bored to complete the endeavor we embarked on. And we proudly produced memories as vibrant as the eggs we colored.
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