The Easter holidays are one of my favourite times of year. Normally we go away for a week as soon as the kids break up and then have lots of friends and family around for Easter weekend itself.
Sadly, nothing is normal right now so no trips away and no friends and family over 🙁
Differentiating the Easter holiday in 2020
We’ve just completed our first two weeks of homeschooling. I’ve been fairly strict on routine and they’ve done a lot of work. Part of the reason for my approach is because I want to take our foot off the gas these coming two weeks so the Easter holidays can still feel significantly different whilst we continue to be confined to home.
These next two weeks we won’t get up as early, we won’t be doing Joe Wicks, we won’t be structuring the day and there’ll be no formal learning. It’ll be a time to chill out.
The girls’ ideas for Easter
I asked the girls what they would like to happen at Easter within house and garden. Here’s what they said:
Easter egg hunt
We can definitely still do this whether it’s indoors or outdoors. We’ve had some hunts indoors when it’s pouring with rain or freezing cold and have done others outside very early in the morning when it’s been so hot the chocolate was melting. You’ve got to love the unpredictability of the British weather.
Barbecue
It’s an Easter tradition to get the BBQ and spit out even if it rains. The girls have asked if we can cook burgers, chicken and arrosticini. Arrosticini are small lamb kebabs from the Abruzzo region of Italy. We’ve eaten them for as long as I can remember in Italy but last year I got my husband the specialised trough to cook them on and they were cemented as a firm favourite. We did a big summer BBQ last year and they were a huge hit with everyone.
My dad in action with the arrosticini 
Mocktails
They’d like to have a mocktail making session and create their own bar. Mum and dad get to sample and choose their favourite drink.
Easter fashion show
Dress up like a bunny, wear your bonnet and other Easter-inspired garb and sashay down the improvised catwalk; take plenty of pictures. Sofia wants to do the make-up!
Games day/night
To include (amongst others): Poker, netball tournament, badminton, Frustration, Cluedo, Monopoly…
Cooking
Sofia wants to make pizzette, Maria wants to make gingerbread shaped bunnies and Gabby wants to make chocolate Easter egg nests.
My ideas for Easter
The Easter display
This has become a tradition in the last four years. We have a small white wooden tree (bought from the wedding section of a department store), which we hang our collection of little Easter decorations from. The tree came with wooden heart tags for wedding guests to write messages on. We’ve used them each Easter for our friends and family to write on. We’ve got a nice collection of them now, which is a great reminder of the people we’ve spent Easter with over the years.
Make a restaurant
We all love going out to eat under normal circumstances so Matt and I are going to try to recreate the restaurant experience at home. Nice table clothes, menu, flowers on the table, our best silver service… you get the idea.
Write some Easter cards
We’ve written and posted some already. I love getting ‘nice post’ and hope these will put a smile on the recipients’ faces. 💌 Maria and Gabby are also making some cards for their friends.
Dresses
I buy the girls an ‘Easter dress’ each in the same way I buy them a dress each for their Christmas Eve Box. It’s just going to be the five of us, but we’re still going to make an occasion of it so let’s dress up a bit!
Sow some seeds
I want to get busy in the garden this Easter. According to the RHS, beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip, spring and pickling onions, peas and perpetual spinach are good to sow in April.
We’ll also do another round of Beebombs. These are wild flowers, which specifically attract bees, in a seed ball. You just scatter the pellets; no gardening skills required.
We can also tend to the fairy garden, which has now sprouted.
Summer challenges
We can’t do all of these right now but there are quite a few we can do on here.
What are your plans over the holiday?
