Decorating with Kids

My kids and I have decorated eggs just about every way you can think of doing it. We've painted them, stuck stuff to them, used artificial food colouring, used dyed crepe paper , and natural dyes. The artificial colouring creates some pretty lurid hues and is faster to do, but the natural dyes make beautiful, subtle colours that look, well, natural. It takes a bit of planning to get all the ingredients together, but you can get the kids in on that as well. Get them to search around the kitchen for things they could use to create the dyes. You can turn it into a bit of a science lesson without being doctrinaire.

Here are a few things you find commonly in a kitchen that can make up those natural dyes.

• Red: Beets, cranberries
• Orange: Outer skins of onions
• Light Yellow: Carrot tops, orange or lemon peels
• Dark Yellow: Turmeric
• Blue: Blueberries, red cabbage leaves
• Beige or brown: Coffee or tea

We always made up the colours first by boiling the ingredients in water and a tablespoon of vinegar, and then put them into bowls and dipped the eggs into each bowl as in the photo below. Later today Collin is going to share a funny video that shows you how to make the eggs directly in the pot with the dyes. My son, in particular, liked the "marble" effect, so we would always put some vegetable oil into the dye. That way you can layer the colours, always going from lightest dye to the darkest.

Take some time this weekend and make some wonderful Easter eggs with your kids, because in 10 years, they'll have other things to do.