Limiting number of eggs at Easter Egg hunts?

[Mom2J112903]

Anyone else do this or have heard of this?

 

We have done egg hunts with *large* groups but never until this year have I ever heard of limiting the number of eggs a child can find.

 

Last year at Catholic school there was even a prize for the child whom found the most! Every child had no less than 20 eggs-and the kiddos all had a BLAST! If one child filled up their basket, they would help their friends fill up theirs.

 

I have never heard of this before and we will not be attending our homeschool groups egg hunt because of this. J has way too many special needs to understand this right now.

[Chris in VA]

Yes, we have one at our church and tell the kids how many each may find. It's always an insane number, like 20 or so. They aren't hard to find, either! LOL

 

The littlest are separated from the bigger kids, and their parents help them count. I think it's 4 and under go to one spot, and 5 and up go to the big field we have (well, not THAT big, but a field nonetheless). They can't open them on the spot, either, because we've had kids open one, not like the contents, and leave it. We also don't put candy in them. My husband doesn't like this rule, because candy stands for the Sweetness of Christ on Easter. But we do understand there are allergies and sugar-free families, so people put in stickers/little figures/rings/etc (i.e., mostly junk...).

 

I'm just asking--why is it hard for your ds to understand that type of limit?

[Mom2J112903]

J has a lot of processing disorders and even following three step directions are still hard for him. For example, J go to the kitchen, get a glass and fill it with juice. He will go to the kitchen and just stand there, lost :( Between auditory and visual and all over processing skills being delayed, it is just not something I want him to struggle with.

 

I too like the idea of candy in the eggs, but understand since we have BTDT with food allergies. Hard candy was always something do-able for us though, thankfully!

[DawnM]

I much prefer this way! In fact, my son with special needs prefers it this way too, so that he doesn't end up with next to nothing while others end up with 100 or more eggs. THAT is what sends him into fits (or did more when he was younger).

 

It is just more fair for everyone, particularly those with special needs or the very young.

 

Dawn

[Jenny in Florida]

Yes, we have one at our church and tell the kids how many each may find. It's always an insane number, like 20 or so. They aren't hard to find, either! LOL

 

The littlest are separated from the bigger kids, and their parents help them count. I think it's 4 and under go to one spot, and 5 and up go to the big field we have (well, not THAT big, but a field nonetheless). They can't open them on the spot, either, because we've had kids open one, not like the contents, and leave it. We also don't put candy in them. My husband doesn't like this rule, because candy stands for the Sweetness of Christ on Easter. But we do understand there are allergies and sugar-free families, so people put in stickers/little figures/rings/etc (i.e., mostly junk...).

 

I'm just asking--why is it hard for your ds to understand that type of limit?

 

This is pretty much how we do it, too.

 

What we do is start handing out empty plastic eggs a few weeks in advance to families whose kids will be participating. We ask that they bring back the eggs filled, as many dozens as they have kids participating. (In other words, if your family has two egg hunters, we ask that you fill and return two dozen eggs.)

 

Easter morning, we collect all the eggs, plus any extras people have brought. For example, I organize the Easter party at our church, and I almost always fill a few dozen extra eggs. That way, if we have visitors show up that day or someone forgets to bring eggs, we still have enough for everyone.

 

Once we've counted all the eggs and all of the children, we divide the totals and tell the kids how many eggs each one may collect. Generally, between the extras I stuff and what others donate, we have more than the official dozen for each child to find. But, whatever the number is, that's what it is.

 

We do it this way so that no child is left without eggs or with only two while others snatch up everything in sight. I've taken my kids to other hunts that do not have limits, and it always makes me so sad to see some children unhappy.

 

I can certainly understand that this might not work for your son, though. At our church, we're perfectly fine it parents and adults want or need to help a child during the hunt. Would it be possible for you to assist your son and help him stop at the appropriate time?

[historically accurate]

We've been to both kinds. I much prefer the limited ones. My middle has some physical delays and tends to be slow and awkward with that many people around. One year, she only got 1 egg while this little boy in her area got around 50! She was heartbroken. Fortunately, her sisters shared theirs with her.

[justasque]

In my extended family, we have about 20 kids, and we do it this way: each kid can find up to a certain number of eggs (usually 20 or so), plus they must find their "special" egg - the one with their name on it. After everyone has found their eggs, they all open the name eggs, which contain parts of a treasure hunt map. Usually they must follow a series of clues, each leading to the next, to find the "treasure". The clues are designed so that all of the cousins (tots to teens to early 20's) need to help to solve them, for example there may be a question about Dora the Explorer, or one about something tween-ish, or one about high school physics, etc., so that different age kids are needed to know the answers. It's a grand tradition they look forward to every year.

[ktgrok]

I like the one's with limits, because otherwise my kid would get all of them when he was little, and other kids didn't get any, or vice versa. In fact, in our own house, we always hid as many eggs as he was years old. the idea was that if we had more kids one kid wouldn't find all the eggs. little did i know that he would be an only child until he was 10, but the idea was good. Also, that way he knew how many to find, and when to stop looking, lol.

[Myra]

Whenever I've organized egg hunts, I request that each child bring a dozen plastic eggs filled with whatever treats/stickers/etc in an egg carton. Then the parents hide the eggs and each child searches (for any egg, not just the ones they brought) until their empty egg carton is filled. They can then help other children search for eggs, if desired.

 

Myra

[Carrie12345]

I'm the parent of a kid who was devastated when the faster, more outgoing kids got nearly all the eggs. I like limits, and we even do that within our own house. We choose to use less exciting events to teach them that life isn't always fair. ;)

[MamaAkins]

We have always had a set number of eggs to look for, both at personal Easter egg hunts at home and at those at churches & homeschool groups. It just makes it more fair for all the different aged children. We've even done color-coded egg hunts at home each year -- Each child has a certain color egg they are collecting (so, my little one would be looking for 12 pink eggs, my middle girl would look for 12 yellow eggs, ds would be looking for 12 blue and my oldest would look for 12 green). It enables us to hide them in appropriately difficult hiding spots for each age group and also ensures that they get relatively equal prizes inside their eggs (we hide plastic eggs, not real).

[chiguirre]

When my sons were smaller, an adult always went with them to do the hunt and keep the count (the boy counted, the adult reminded them they could find x more eggs). If the amount happens to be a dozen, put half an egg carton in the basket and they have a great visual prompt for the right number of eggs. You could do this with another number by cutting the carton to the right amount.

[angela in ohio]

I'm with you, Crystal. I disagree with that type of mentaility.

 

My dm puts on an egg hunt, and she color codes for the big and little kids, so that the toddlers can have a chance at a few. Other than that, you get what you can find. No one is upset, and you will often see those with more sharing with those with less voluntarily, a skill they will never learn if it is always legislated.

[Wheres Toto]

I'm another one voting for the designated number of eggs. My son is very slow to jump into activities. He usually takes a few minutes to think about it first. He's never been a very aggressive kid. We went to our towns egg hunt a few years ago and he ended up with two eggs, while other kids had dozens. He would be reaching for an egg and other more aggressive kids would take it right out from in front of him. It did not end up being a pleasant experience at all. Since this was mostly strangers, there was no sharing among kids after the eggs were found.

 

We do an egg hunt in our backyard Easter morning and just let our kids find whatever they find since they all go in to one basket. It's different in a small group.

 

I think there are plenty of other opportunities for them to realize how unfair life can be without turning what should be a fun occasion into tears.

[elegantlion]

I would also prefer a number limit. It makes it fair for all.

[beccad777]

I think it should be a set number of eggs. We always have an Easter egg hunt at my inlaws' house on Easter. My 2 nieces always go around and get every one they can find and their dad helps them. Then my kids, who are slower to find them, are left with very few while my nieces end up with dozens more than their share. They do not stop and help others. They just look and grab until the eggs are all gone. It is very discouraging for my kids and their parents and my in laws never say anything to them about it. Makes me not want to go to their house for Easter. Limits are a good thing. ;)

[Mom2J112903]

I'm with you, Crystal. I disagree with that type of mentaility.

 

My dm puts on an egg hunt, and she color codes for the big and little kids, so that the toddlers can have a chance at a few. Other than that, you get what you can find. No one is upset, and you will often see those with more sharing with those with less voluntarily, a skill they will never learn if it is always legislated.

 

This is exactly why there were never limits placed on the number at the Catholic school J attended. The students were SO happy to help their friends once their basket was filled and to share once everyone sat down.

 

My family is coming in from out of town that day anyways-J doesn't get to see his MeMaw often, so he will be having *loads* of fun anyways. ;)

 

Also running for the eggs has taught J to be more outgoing as he *loves* the thrill of egg hunting. Some of his first egg hunts ended up with older children taking him, showing him how to do "the egg run"-he loved it!

[K-FL]

We just did plastic egg hunts at home. We had a set number because even though there's only 4 yrs between #1 & #3, that's a big deal when they're little. That way #1 could go crazy and find her bunch and then help the youngers. Made everyone happy.

 

BTW: We stuffed w/either coins or candy.

[Kari C in SC]

This is how we do it. Otherwise, you will end up with a kid with 100 eggs and then a kid with 5.

[Cinder]

Yes, I've attended a church that did this. Most years we haven't gone to Easter Egg hunts because my ds's don't like the madness of kids runnning around grabbing eggs in a hurry. But the one year we went the woman coordinating it ordered a bunch of egg cartons. The kids were given one and were done when they filled their carton. Then they could go to another area to decorate it. I think it worked well and it stemmed the insanity somewhat.

 

Perhaps giving your ds an egg carton might help with keeping to the limit? I know he'd end up with fewer than allowed but it might be a good compromise and enable him to participate.

[*Jessica*]

I'm the parent of a kid who was devastated when the faster, more outgoing kids got nearly all the eggs. I like limits, and we even do that within our own house. We choose to use less exciting events to teach them that life isn't always fair. ;)

:iagree: Our Easter egg hunts are family affairs. We go to Marc's parents' house (Catholic) and she has an egg hunt for all of the grandchildren. Each child gets a certain color of egg, that way she can hide the ones for the littles in easier places, and the ones for the elders in higher and harder places.

 

My dm puts on an egg hunt, and she color codes for the big and little kids, so that the toddlers can have a chance at a few. Other than that, you get what you can find. No one is upset, and you will often see those with more sharing with those with less voluntarily, a skill they will never learn if it is always legislated.

This makes sense, but in our little family hunts there is at least one child (the eldest) who is faster at finding than her cousins and who would think it absolutely hilarious to find all of the eggs and leave none for the rest of the kids. And no, she would not be willing share with them, either. She would prefer to laugh and let them know that she found them and wasn't sharing. Her mother would make her, but the cousins would all be upset already and the day would be ruined. MiMi's way of one color egg for each child keeps all of the kids happy.

[vonfirmath]

We prefer the egg hunts with limits. My son does -not- need 50+ eggs. Nor did he feel good about the year he ended up with 5 little eggs at the bottom of his basket. (He was still pretty young and learning and the "older" kids in his group were still not old enough to understand helping the little ones get more) Luckily, there were other activities to distract him with that year.

 

We've been much more successful at hunts where you get your X number of eggs, then you are done.

 

He doesn't care if others get MORE -- as long as his basket looks "full" -- we use a smaller basket and find 12 eggs is just about the perfect number.

[kokotg]

I'm the parent of a kid who was devastated when the faster, more outgoing kids got nearly all the eggs. I like limits, and we even do that within our own house. We choose to use less exciting events to teach them that life isn't always fair. ;)

 

:iagree:

 

My kids (at least when they're younger) tend to stand there like deer in headlights for the critical first couple of minutes of an Easter egg hunt. Then, later, they cry. It's not really any fun.

 

 

No one is upset, and you will often see those with more sharing with those with less voluntarily, a skill they will never learn if it is always legislated.

 

IME, at hunts with egg number limited, what usually happens is that the older kids get really into helping the younger kids find their eggs once they've hit their own allotment, which is another kind of sharing.

 

 

... I don't really care how things happen if no one gets upset, but I've watched my own kids get upset many times at Easter egg hunts. And it's not nearly as much fun to have some other kid give you an egg as to find your own.

[ChristusG]

I'm another one voting for the designated number of eggs. My son is very slow to jump into activities. He usually takes a few minutes to think about it first. He's never been a very aggressive kid. We went to our towns egg hunt a few years ago and he ended up with two eggs, while other kids had dozens. He would be reaching for an egg and other more aggressive kids would take it right out from in front of him. It did not end up being a pleasant experience at all. Since this was mostly strangers, there was no sharing among kids after the eggs were found.

 

 

 

Yep, this is exactly what happened to DD1 when she was around 4 and 5 years old. We went to our town egg hunt and people would grab them as she was reaching for them!! :001_huh: There were children with baskets overflowing and she walked away with 2 eggs. She's very shy and unaggressive.

[angela in ohio]

I don't really care how things happen if no one gets upset, but I've watched my own kids get upset many times at Easter egg hunts. And it's not nearly as much fun to have some other kid give you an egg as to find your own.

 

Maybe that's the key difference here. I don't have a problem with my kids getting upset and being able to work through it with them. I like life lessons for my dc.

[kokotg]

Maybe that's the key difference here. I don't have a problem with my kids getting upset and being able to work through it with them. I like life lessons for my dc.

 

I like life lessons, too, and I don't think there's any shortage of them in the world. Easter egg hunts will always suck unless you change your fundamental personality and become more aggressive isn't really one I'm interested in ;) Seriously, my kids get upset about something or other and I help them work through it every day. Some things are just supposed to be fun.

 

Anyway, you just said that at the Easter egg hunts you attend, no one does get upset. If that's the case, I say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[TravelingChris]

I always prefered the limited number ones. Yes, kids can share and mine always helped others but not every one does. At most Easter Egg hunts, there was at least one family that had kids that believed in winner takes all mentality. I much preferred limited number hunts. It was simply much less hectic.

[RoundAbout]

I like limits as well. There are soooooooooooo many opportunities to teach that life isn't fair, and my son is barely 4, that I just don't think it needs to extend into what's supposed to be a fun holiday event. I also agree that its no fun to have someone else find eggs for you. It's so cute to see the little ones looking high and low for an egg that's right in front of their face :)

 

We do family/friend hunts for this reason and I like the idea of color coding so each one gets their own. If I wanted to run a competitive egg hunt I'd probably put a few special eggs out there worth bigger prizes so the older kids can focus on that instead of getting the most.

[LidiyaDawn]

As a parent of a special needs child (ds12) I would MUCH prefer an egg hunt with limits so that our son could take part - if it's a free for all, he has zero chance of getting any eggs without his sister getting in there and snagging them FOR him.

 

For the OP ~ have you ever tried an egg hunt with structure for your son? Many SN kids do *better* when they have clear rules/etc laid out ahead of time.

[AngieC]

We've never gone to an egg hunt because I have never liked the idea of it being a free-for-all, but we've hosted them at our house for several years and there has always been a limit on the number of eggs.

[simka2]

I used to organize huge community easter egg hunts. I never took the approach of limiting numbers, because that was to difficult with the various needs in our community. We would divide the fields by age, and include a certain number of prize eggs in every field. The prize eggs were where it was at!!!! So, the kids automatically limited, because they were searching for the prize eggs. Also, we held back a certain amount of candy for the younger kids who may have gotten a late start or run into some other difficulty.

[angela in ohio]

I like life lessons, too, and I don't think there's any shortage of them in the world. Easter egg hunts will always suck unless you change your fundamental personality and become more aggressive isn't really one I'm interested in ;) Seriously, my kids get upset about something or other and I help them work through it every day. Some things are just supposed to be fun.

 

Anyway, you just said that at the Easter egg hunts you attend, no one does get upset. If that's the case, I say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

I wouldn't want that lesson either. Yikes. But that's not the lesson my dc learn from situations like this. They learn to cooperate, to share, to help others. My dc have been known to forgo their own craft or treat to help a special needs or younger child get theirs, and we model and expect that behavior. We teach "people before things," and this would be a great opportunity to test whether they were getting the message.

 

No one gets upset at our family hunt, because they have these skills to work it out themselves. I just think in general adults put too many rules on children, and they should be allowed to work more things out on their own, developing the skills to work things out as adults.

 

ETA: Yes, we have been to other larger egg hunts, too, so I know what they are like.

Edited March 11, 2011 by angela in ohio

[Veritaserum]

As a parent of a special needs child (ds12) I would MUCH prefer an egg hunt with limits so that our son could take part - if it's a free for all, he has zero chance of getting any eggs without his sister getting in there and snagging them FOR him.

 

For the OP ~ have you ever tried an egg hunt with structure for your son? Many SN kids do *better* when they have clear rules/etc laid out ahead of time.

 

Most kids do better with limits. :) I have no problem "legislating" proper behavior in children. That's what parents/adults are supposed to do. :)

 

My disabled brother would never get any eggs in a free-for-all....

[jujsky]

Anyone else do this or have heard of this?

 

We have done egg hunts with *large* groups but never until this year have I ever heard of limiting the number of eggs a child can find.

 

Last year at Catholic school there was even a prize for the child whom found the most! Every child had no less than 20 eggs-and the kiddos all had a BLAST! If one child filled up their basket, they would help their friends fill up theirs.

 

I have never heard of this before and we will not be attending our homeschool groups egg hunt because of this. J has way too many special needs to understand this right now.

 

I don't know why this would keep you from attending. It's fair, and would benefit your child more, I would think. Our family always did this. Each child was allowed the same amount of eggs. With 10 grandchildren in a range of ages, it made sense. The older kids would pair up with the little ones and help them.

[ktgrok]

I wouldn't want that lesson either. Yikes. But that's not the lesson my dc learn from situations like this. They learn to cooperate, to share, to help others. My dc have been known to forgo their own craft or treat to help a special needs or younger child get theirs, and we model and expect that behavior. We teach "people before things," and this would be a great opportunity to test whether they were getting the message.

 

No one gets upset at our family hunt, because they have these skills to work it out themselves. I just think in general adults put too many rules on children, and they should be allowed to work more things out on their own, developing the skills to work things out as adults.

 

Thats great. my kids have those skills too. But other kids don't and my son has been literally knocked down by kids at egg hunts. I can't control the lessons those other kids have been taught. If they are selfish and rude my kid gets hurt. Family gatherings where you know all the kids are different, but big ones need limits.

[kokotg]

Thats great. my kids have those skills too. But other kids don't and my son has been literally knocked down by kids at egg hunts. I can't control the lessons those other kids have been taught. If they are selfish and rude my kid gets hurt. Family gatherings where you know all the kids are different, but big ones need limits.

 

yeah, I think that's the thing...a small, family gathering is a completely different thing from a big, community event. It's gotten where I'm not really interested in going to those anymore, because at least one of my kids is bound to get his feelings hurt. It's easy to teach lessons about sharing at Easter egg hunts if your kid is one of the ones who finds eggs easily. If your kid is the one who winds up with 2 eggs while everyone else's basket is overflowing, I just can't think of any lesson that I want my kids to learn that comes out of that. And, believe me, I've had plenty of experience trying to put a positive spin on it.

 

When I was a kid, I loved competitive Easter egg hunts. I was good at them. My kids are not, so I see it from a completely different perspective now.

[Jennifer3141]

We did a large community egg hunt a few years ago and it was AWFUL. Some kid shoved my son to the ground and stole his eggs, DD ran off in search of more eggs and there I stood trying to figure out which kid to help first. :glare:

 

Now we're on a 10 acre farm and I and three other homeschooling parents are having our own hunt. We're really excited about it because all of our kids love each other so I'm pretty sure it's going to be like our other treasure hunts where everyone makes sure the 2 year old has enough and he's going to walk away the champion again!

 

We did a pinata for DS' birthday last year and when the bigger kids smashed it, everyone let the baby go first and grab his loot. He was so cute toddering away with a big grin on his face and fistfulls of candy!

[happi duck]

Whenever I've organized egg hunts, I request that each child bring a dozen plastic eggs filled with whatever treats/stickers/etc in an egg carton. Then the parents hide the eggs and each child searches (for any egg, not just the ones they brought) until their empty egg carton is filled. They can then help other children search for eggs, if desired.

 

Myra

 

:iagree: We find that this encourages the older kids to look for the more difficult to find eggs instead of just grabbing the first they see. Everyone knows they will get their share and it takes the pressure off. Using the egg carton makes it easy to see how many more you need to find.

[MrsBasil]

I'm familiar with a few egg hunts that have imposed limits. They tend tone larger community events and the limits are in response to poor behavior by the participants, children and adults. I've seen kids take eggs out others hands or baskets, I've seen parents pointing out eggs to an older child that a little one is clearly reaching for, and I've seen parents rac to fill extra baskets for their kid after clearly being told to just let the kids hunt.

[Jenny in Florida]

Thats great. my kids have those skills too. But other kids don't and my son has been literally knocked down by kids at egg hunts. I can't control the lessons those other kids have been taught. If they are selfish and rude my kid gets hurt. Family gatherings where you know all the kids are different, but big ones need limits.

 

It's easy to teach lessons about sharing at Easter egg hunts if your kid is one of the ones who finds eggs easily. If your kid is the one who winds up with 2 eggs while everyone else's basket is overflowing, I just can't think of any lesson that I want my kids to learn that comes out of that.

 

This is where I'm coming from, too. Even at our church, with parents on hand to supervise and assist, my kids have been left with too few eggs while others took more than their share. Although mine are too old to hunt now, we had a little one have that experience last year, too. The greedy child was not a regular attendee and didn't have relationships with the other kids. She was unrepentant when we pointed out to her that she had collected too many eggs.

 

We ended up telling her she had to give a couple of the as-yet-unopened eggs to the child who had missed out, but she was not what one could call gracious about it.

 

And, in the end, it's not as much fun for the other child, anyway. It's a whole different experience to hunt for your own eggs than to have someone give you left-overs.

 

I'm sure that in some situations, the no-limit thing might work. But I have never seen such a situation. In my experience, even with firm rules and supervision, some children behave badly and others loose out because of it.

 

I kind of envy people who live in communities where it would work the other way.

[Brilliant]

I think limits are a great idea for a church or community oriented event. When my dc were 3 & 6, we attended a church Easter egg hunt and they collected exactly 0 eggs each because the older kids sprinted across the field ahead of the younger kids. I don't think an Easter egg hunt is the right venue to teach the younger kids that life isn't always fair. Someone mentioned it's great for teaching older kids to "share"; that might work in a family, but in a large church not so much (we didn't know any older kids, and nobody offered my disappointed kids any eggs). I think giving limits to the kids is great, especially if they are then encouraged to help younger kids.

 

We attended a friends & family hunt last year. The teens hid the eggs, and although we didn't place any limits, the older kids and moms were right there helping the littler kids. But I don't see that working at a large event.

[justasque]

The thing is, it's hard for a young child to know how many is "ok" and how many is "greedy", if they are not given some kind of information about how many eggs there are, how many kids there are, etc, and even then they'd need to do some division to figure it out. For a small hunt, observation might do it, but for a large hunt, it's probably beyond some kids' abilities to do the estimation accurately. And if it is presented as a "hurry up and find as many as you can" thing, and they are not given a sense of when/if to stop up front, then some kids are going to keep going. It's a tricky thing.

 

OP, you might want to give the hunt-with-a-limit event a try. Just explain to your dc that a certain number of eggs are hidden, and they don't want some kids to get a ton and other kids to get few or none, so they are letting people know how to know when they have gotten their share. Explain that it is a different kind of thing than you have done before. You might want to give it a different label - say that the other kind is "competitive" and this kind is "cooperative" or something, so that your dc thinks of it as a different thing and does not apply the same assumptions as from the previous events. And you might want to discuss in advance the feelings that may result when he has his share and wants to continue but can't - how that will feel and what he can do about it, like help little kids find more, etc. You might be pleasantly surprised.

[Paige]

After going to many egg hunts where all the eggs were gone in under 2-3min and the majority of kids getting nothing (apparent by all the empty baskets and crying kids I saw) I prefer limits on egg hunts. I think the main problem with the community ones were not enough eggs for the crowd, but even if you separate them by age, the young 3s in the group for 3-5, for instance, will be slaughtered.