We love a good holiday at Orchard Fostering – and Easter is no different. Holidays are a great time to take a break and check in with yourself and your foster child. Easter offers this opportunity for connection and reflection more than most holidays – it’s not as pressurised as Christmas, but your foster child (if they’re of school-going age) will still have a lengthy break from their studies.
In this article, we take a look at how to celebrate Easter with your foster child, offering some essential tips for foster child carers celebrating their first Easter, and showing how to build an emotional bond with your foster child through Easter activities. If you’re interested in learning more about fostering, please contact us today.
Go on an Easter egg hunt in your local park
You can’t deny the power of the classics. An Easter egg hunt is a staple of many an Irish childhood and your foster child will get a real kick out of scouring their local area for eggs (chocolate or otherwise!). While most Easter egg hunts are centred around the house, try and expand your radius this year by rigging out your local park with some treasures. By getting out into the park, you can spend your Easter morning getting some valuable exercise – turning what used to be a chocolate-focused feast into a family walkabout.
If you’re concerned about chocolate overload, you can always replace the chocolate eggs with painted stones or decorative eggs. Your foster child can use these as a token, trading one for a chocolate treat at times you have designated. This reduces the potential for sugar rush and also extends out the rewarding nature of the Easter egg hunt for a few days.
Get out in the garden and plant some new life
Easter is a time of new life – spring is in the air, the daffodils are blooming, and the days are getting longer. While it can be easy to get bogged down in Easter eggs and hot cross buns, Easter can also be seen as a celebration of newness. In the spirit of new life that spring brings, why not spend the Easter holidays tending the garden with your foster child? Getting the garden ready for a summer of sun is a great way of getting your foster child in touch with nature – and getting a few jobs done, too!
While we usually plant bulbs in the autumn, you could still let some of that spring spirit into your home through flower-arranging. Flower-arranging is a creative task that can create a real emotional bond between you and your foster child – you also end up with a great Easter gift for grandparents or other members of your family.
Get crafty with your foster child
Easter is a great time for arts and crafts – the pastel colours of the season really lend themselves to all sorts of creative enterprises. Crafting with your foster child is a great way to forge an emotional bond, as you work together to see projects through to the end. Crafting can also act as a means of giving your foster child some independence – let them control their own artwork and see where the journey takes them.
Look around you for artistic Easter inspiration. In keeping with our gardening theme, why not press a book of flowers together? You can take these pressings and frame them – gifting them to family members or hanging them up around the house. You can also cook up some props for your Easter egg hunt – painting hard-boiled eggs with acrylic paint allows you to design your own tokens as described above. Making and decorating cards can also be a great way to bond – you can talk about who your foster child wants to send their card to, and why.
Bake your own Easter treats
Easter is about eating chocolate. Every year, the eggs get bigger and more expensive. This year, instead of splurging on over-priced brand name Easter eggs, try and come up with your own alternative Easter treats. Baking is a great way to connect with your foster child, bringing them into the kitchen in a meaningful manner. The kitchen is the centre of your home and allowing your foster child to work with you in the hub of daily life can be a great way to make them feel more at home.
Hot cross buns are a traditional Easter delicacy and a great way to introduce your foster child to baking. They’re easy to whip up on Easter Sunday morning and can add a real sense of occasion to the day. We’re big fans of Mary Berry’s recipe, which you can find here.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by chocolate eggs in the days following Easter, have a fondue party. Melt down the chocolate with some butter and milk, pop open a bag of marshmallows or strawberries and enjoy an Easter treat.
Hopefully our tips and tricks for celebrating Easter with your foster child will help make your Easter an enjoyable one.
If this article has sparked your interest and you want to talk more about fostering with Orchard Fostering, reach out to us today. You can contact us via phone, email, or by filling out our contact form. We’d love to hear from you – and get you started on the first step of your fostering journey.