As a mother, I am constantly racking my brain in ways that I can make 'educational' activities fun. Things come so easy these days for our children with technology (enter the iPad). Although there are educational activities available on computers/iPads, there is just something about having them do hands-on educational activities. Hint: why I LOVE this color sorting with an egg crate activity!
Technology-based activities are so much easier for us mommas. No stressing about putting together or coming up with the activity…all right there with a push of a button. The downside is that too much screen-time is not the best thing for our kids. If my kids spend too much time on an iPad, like around an hour, they become aggressive and zombie-like all at the same time. Then trying to take the iPad away is another scary battle. Ugh!!
Enter hands-on activities for the win! This Color Sorting with an Egg Crate is super SUPER easy and can be put together in less than 5 minutes. You do not have to rush to the store for this one (unless you are out of eggs haha!) I found stuff around the house to put this activity together for my older kids.
You first need to have an egg crate. I cleaned my with soap and water before I let my kids any where near it…I am a germaphobe and the thought of possible salmonella on it made me cringe. So washing it will go! I dried it well and then went to searching for little things that could be sorted. I found pom poms, buttons, beads, little wooden clothes pins, and popsicle sticks. Once I gathered all of these things, I grouped them up by color to see what colors my kids would be sorting.
Then grab markers, sharpies, crayons…whatever is available and color the inside of each egg crate 1 color. This will be where the color sorting will take place 🙂 I went with 6 different color options: pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, and 'white'. I also cut my egg crate in half to avoid any sibling rivalry with this activity! My son and daughter had their very own sorting crate. I then used the top of the egg crate to hold all the items that needed to be sorted.
Set your kids up with their sorting tray and crate and let them get to sorting! My kids had so much fun…well up until they decided to make it into a competition haha!