We don’t typically dye Easter eggs at my house. I won’t buy toxic dye kits that contain a ton of fake colors, and natural egg dyeing leaves much to be desired in the kid+fun department. I know, all season long, at all the green blogs you read, you’ll see this, “Natural egg dyeing is super fun for kids!” or “Kids LOVE dyeing eggs naturally!”
I disagree. In fact, I sometimes wonder if many of the folks at said green sites have ever even made homemade Easter egg dye and then colored eggs with young children.
Homemade dyed eggs take forever and equal less fun for kids.
Don’t get me wrong, non-toxic egg dye has a lot going for it. Obviously I like that non-toxic egg dye is, well, non-toxic. Also, making an egg bath with veggies, fruits or flowers is a fun science experiment for older kids. Natural egg dyeing can also appeal to younger kids who have unusually large amounts of patience, but honestly, I have some major issues with the “fun factor” involved.
Here’s how natural egg dyeing goes…
- Gather tons of veggies and fruits (flowers and other nature goodies if you like).
- Make a million pots of water and boil those items down.
- Strain the water free from berries, stems and such.
- Add vinegar.
- Add eggs.
- Wait OVERNIGHT for the colors to set.
- See your colored eggs!
Wow, and it only took, um… about 12 hours. I don’t know about your kids, but my kid, at age three, four, five and even older, wasn’t the type to be overly impressed with the idea of carefully soaking eggs for hours and hours. You know why kids like those terrible, icky old fake colored Easter egg dye kits? Because you get instant, eye-popping results. Easter eggs in a flash.
Real honest to goodness egg dyeing the natural way is extremely time consuming. There’s a quicker hot-method, but it’s not a safe method for young children, so you have to use the longer cold method.
Adults like natural egg dyeing – very young kids – not so much. We dye other stuff around here – like cloth and play clay, but not eggs because it’s simply not too much fun for little ones.
Still, I don’t suggest you run right out and buy one of those toxic egg dying kits. Here’s what I recommend:
- Wait until your kids are old enough to appreciate this project, which likely won’t be until they’re older.
- Use the Eco-Eggs Easter Egg Coloring Kit
(shown above), which will offer much quicker results – not as quick as a regular egg dyeing set, but faster than homemade and the dyes are totally safe and natural.
- If you do dye eggs naturally be very clear with your kids that you WILL NOT be getting instant results, at least, not with most homemade dyes.
My number one suggestion is that if you’d like to color eggs with natural items, is that you color the eggs before hand then let the kids go wild with other fun egg decorating techniques. For example…
Martha Stewart has tons of decor egg ideas, such as:
Martha also has ideas about how to make and decorate an Easter egg tree.
Family Fun also has a million egg decorating ideas that go beyond dye.
Decorate pre-colored eggs with pressed flowers via The Magic Onions.
Other ideas about how to decorate eggs…
All of the crafts above can be made with naturally colored Easter eggs that still have the egg inside (just keep them cold until you decorate) or can be made with eggs that have been blown out. Learn how to blow out an egg.
If you’re still excited to try coloring your own Easter eggs naturally, no worries. I’ll be back later with a quick primer, but remember, some kids may not have the patience for natural egg dyeing.
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Well I haven’t had the same problem with the length of time for dyeing with kids. I do lots of projects with my grandkids (and have since they were small), that require waiting.
On the other hand, I like your alternatives and also you can buy organic food coloring. That should shorten the wait time considerably.
I think SOME kids do okay waiting. I’m lucky. Cedar is a chill kid, and bonus, he’s interested in stuff like this and willing to wait it through. Not when he was very young, but since he was about six or so, he’s been on board with longer projects, so long as the end result is awesome.
However, some kids of people I know are a little more excitable than my son and really happy to do a project, so long as the results aren’t hours away. I’ve seen some kids get super upset when results take so long. Especially when those dumb ads on TV and in magazines show fast egg dying results. I’m not sure if it’s because many kids are used to instant gratification, or just if they’re just being kids, but I’ve really been thinking about this for a couple of years now because I’ve never EVER read a green Easter post that says, hey, some kids won’t like this project.
Although I’m an advocate for greener not toxic egg dyes, I felt like the issue needed a second opinion that might fit more kids. Plus, I did want to point out that this is a non-toxic, but not exactly green process (i.e. more energy used and such).
PS soon today, I’ve got a post about dying eggs coming up, so maybe you’d be able to see if I’m not doing it right (or I haven’t figured out a better faster way).
Sure thing. Some kids are just going to have an issue with the wait and you’re right, when we’ve written about dyeing with flowers and food, we’ve never offered that caveat. I guess it was never an issue for us with “our” kids and we never heard back from anyone that it was a problem. I always assume that no matter how simple a project some kids are going to have a problem with it and that parents need to be aware of how their kids respond. At the same time, you make excellent points (as always) and I’m sure parents of little ones with no patience will be thanking you profusely for thinking of them
We did one of the natural kits last year and so simple but true, use crayons and what you have! First time to your blog but already like ya on facebook.
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