I have gathered a number of projects that you can do with your children to make celebrating Ostara even more fun. Ostara is so fun anyway since it's all about springtime and rebirth, and the colors of Ostara are uplifting and cheerful. Along with rebirth comes new beginnings and new inspiration. I have found these ideas through personal experience and experiments, from browsing through magazines, and around the web on Pagan sites and also from sites or blog posts focused on the Christian holiday of Easter. Even though we are a family of proud pagans, when it comes to creativity we put down our armor and take inspiration as it comes.
Remember that you are your child's greatest teacher, and if you want them to be involved in pagan traditions and celebrations you have to show them and talk to them about what the sabbats are all about. We have started giving our daughter lessons about Ostara. I tell her about the different symbols and what they mean. We talk about how the bunnies come out of their burrows and with them come their little babies. We really do have bunnies on our property so it's pretty fun to watch them! We talk about what an egg is, and how it's the beginning of a new life. We tell her about the earth warming up from the suns rays and how the flowers love the warm sun so they are sprouting out of the ground. We talk about the spring rain and how it waters the plants and helps them grow. It's really very simple if you just take the time to talk about the happenings of the spring season.
Egg Dyeing
Dyeing: You can buy coloring kits from a store or use natural dyeing methods. You can use a white crayon to draw on the eggs just before you dye them to create areas that won't absorb the dye and it will leave a pattern on your egg. You could use symbols such as a pentagram, or make polka dots, zig-zags, or whatever you're little one(s) may want to draw.
Here's the eggs we decorated last year with a store bought kit.
Displaying: If you buy an egg decorating kit, they usually come with little display stands. If you don't have a kit there are some other really cute ways to display the eggs once they have been dyed. You can always use the old stand-by - toilet paper rolls. You simply cut them into segments, paint them, and set your decorated eggs on them. Don't forget to check out the adorable egg displays at Pooka Pages - Ostara Crafts for Young Pagans. Another idea, one that I think we'll use this year, is to line an egg carton with paper grass or dried moss, and then you just set your eggs back in the carton and plop them back in the fridge. Other cute ideas for displaying your eggs could include a nest, basket, Ostara tree, setting them in egg cups, and placing hollow eggs or plastic eggs on the family altar
There are so many ways to dye, decorate and display eggs. I found this great link to some amazing egg decorating inspiration. It's right
here.
Painted Hollow Eggs
Here's a link to an article, How to Hollow Out an Egg , that tells you how to hollow out and egg so you can paint it and use it for decor. Although hollow eggs will probably break if small children handle them, older children and children at heart can have some fun with this project. I have seen eggs painted in both simple and intricate designs and I love them all. They look beautiful when displayed in a nest or hanging from a tree, which is mentioned below in another section of this post.
Glitter Filled Eggs (Cascarones)
I mentioned to my mother-in-law that I wanted to do this project with Willow, and she thought that was pretty neat because she says it's a Mexican tradition also. She is Mexican, Willow's dad is half Mexican, and Willow is my little 1/4 Mexican, red headed fairy child! I read this article about
How to Make Mexican Cascarones: Confetti Eggs for Easter. I thought it was pretty neat since I had already planned on doing it, but now I definitely have to try it. I will be using the method above to hollow out the eggs before decorating them and filling them with glitter. ^^^
Ostara Crystal Eggs
This project involves baking a crystal into a dough ball (not dough for eating) that is shaped like an egg. You hide it during an egg hunt, and the finder gets to crack the egg open (with some help from an adult if needed) to find a shiny surprise! The instructions for this sweet project can be found here: How to Make Magical Crystal Ostara Eggs
Magical Gardening
Gardening is very special to our family. It gets us all outside working together towards a beautiful common goal. We have a perennial garden with flowers, shrubs, and herbs, so we get to watch as the new sprouts pop up and start the brighten up the world. We also have raised garden beds for our vegetables that will need weeding and tilling. In the spring we spend time together tidying up the beds, pick out/buy seeds together, and plan out our vegetable garden. When we grow plants with our children they learn first hand where food, flowers, and herbs come from. They learn skills that will support their own families in the future, and they will learn to have respect for our great Mother Earth and the power that she holds within. There are so many gardening methods, and they are all great to do with children. Planting seeds will teach your child the process and cycle of life. A seed rests dormant (during the winter), then gets planted and sprouts (during the spring), the seed grows into a full sized plant (throughout the summer) and then is harvested (in late summer and in the fall). It's a magical cycle!
Here's our little Willow in our garden last year. She helps our flowers bloom.
Picking out Seeds With Children
Many stores offer seeds during the spring. You can buy from any store you want, but don't forget to check out your local co-op or garden supply store or nursery. Supporting small businesses is another great thing to teach your children. Another thing you can do is learn about heirloom seeds, and look for seeds that are from local farmers. This is a great way to stay connected and contribute to your community. Here's some info about Heirloom Plants, and this is another great article about the importance of heirloom seeds:
The Importance of Heirloom Seeds in Local Food Systems
Planting Flower Bulbs
I have noticed that stores are starting to stock their garden centers with hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips. If you have an outdoor space that you can plant in, soon it will be time to start thinking about buying spring flowers that are in bloom to put in your garden to enjoy for the season, and they will come up year after year. It's also time for picking out flower bulbs that can be planted in spring that will be blooming in the summer. Bulbs are so easy to plant! You just dig a hole, plop them in, fill the hole back in, and water. That's it! It's so easy a toddler can do it, and I have proof. Our little one loves planting bulbs and seeds and she really enjoys the flowers as they grow.
Windowsill Garden
A windowsill garden is pretty self explanatory. You find a windowsill that gets a lot of sun, choose some seeds, choose your containers, gather some soil, and when you have everything together you have a sweet little windowsill garden that your children can watch grow!
Egg Shell Planters
Another really neat project to do with the kiddos is to make eggshells into little starter cups for seeds. I think the best way to do this is to use the eggs for breakfast, making sure to carefully break the tops off of the eggs, wash them out and dry the eggs for the project. Make sure to save your cartons, or in our case just dig them out of our recycling, to set the eggshells back in and use it as a seed starter tray. Once you have the shells ready you use some potting soil (I use organic) to fill the shells, plant your little seeds, water them, label them and put them on a windowsill (or in our case a
greenhouse shelf). We will definitely be doing this project this year! I have to include a link to my favorite example of this project which is on this blog:
Lilliedale's - Easy Spring Gifts, but you can keep it simple if you wish. When the sprouts are big enough, and if you have an outdoor garden and the ground is ready outside, you can just plop the eggshells into the ground. Just remember to crack the bottom of the eggshell so the roots can spread out. If you don't have an outdoor garden you can do the same thing, but place the eggshells in a pot in your house or on your deck.
Ostara Coloring Pages
Printable coloring pages can be found all over the web. We search for new ones a couple times a month on all sorts of subjects. If you want to find coloring pages for your kiddos just do a simple Google search. In fact I have done that for you! Here's what I found:
Bunnies,
eggs,
baskets,
spring flowers
Setting Up a Spring Altar
Even young children can have their own altar. You could use a special spot in their room, or in a corner of a playroom, the top of a dresser, next to their bed, or a small shelf or table that is reserved for this purpose. It can be a very special place for your child to collect and display some of their favorite things. Our daughter is three and she has a little table that we bought at a yard sale that is her personal altar table. She put rocks, feathers, crystals and whatever else is important to her on it. When a child has an altar we need to remember to teach them from our own actions and just guide them gently. It's most likely that the objects on their altar will be changed frequently, but the important thing is that they know it's theirs and it is a very special place. As they get older we can teach them about the specific tools that they can use on their altar.
The fact that it will probably be used often and changed frequently is really a good thing. You can always guide your child(ren) to take a walk outside and find new things for their altar. Things that represent spring could be spring flowers, grass, rocks that we dig up during the tilling of our garden, and you might even get lucky and find an empty eggshell! Whatever they find, they can place on their altar and know that they found it and that it is a beautiful discovery that they can enjoy in their special little spot. They can also use toy bunnies, ribbons, plastic eggs, and a basket as part of their Ostara altar.
EDIT: 2-21-13, I found another picture of Willow's altar and had to add it! It was really very sweet. My favorite one of hers so far...
Ostara Tree
This is something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I always see them in magazines and on people's lawns as real trees that have been decorated. I would think the best way to start would be to buy some plastic easter eggs, but you could use real hollowed out decorated eggs as long as the tree stays indoors. We get really strong winds here, so I wouldn't use real eggs outdoors. It might work for others, though. I would be happy to use a pretty branch, stick it in a vase, decorate it with eggs, and be able to look at it while I'm doing my chores!
Ostara Head Wreath
This is just one of the sweetest things you will do during you're whole life. I remember making these with friends. I found a video that gives very simple instructions on how to make a head wreath with real flowers. You can check it out here. I have also found a tutorial to make one with artificial flowers so you can keep it as long as it lasts in a house that has children in it. You can check that one out here. You can spend as much or as little money as you want on this project. Have fun with it. Oh, and don't forget to add ribbon streamers!
A similar craft would be to make a barrette with a single artificial flower. I have made these before with an artificial flower, a hot glue gun and an alligator clip (or something similar). My daughter loves playing dress up with them, and you can find the supplies very easily. I have found a tutorial for that
here.
Spring Fairy Tutus
This is more of a project for mamas to do for their little fairies. If your little one loves dressing like a fairy, and you're a crafty mama, check out this tutorial! You can add flowers and ribbons to these to dress them up however you want.
Toilet Paper Roll Bunnies
How cute are these bunnies? Recently my daughter and I made a family of owls out of toilet paper rolls. It was so simple and fun and she is still playing with them everyday. We recycle everything that we can, so gathering the toilet paper rolls is easy for us, but if you don't recycle and want to do projects like this, simply reserve a spot to store things that you can craft with and take the time to collect them. We use a sterilite set of drawers, but you can use whatever you have. These little bunnies are made out of basic crafting materials, googly eyes, and poms. Here's the super simple directions.
1. Cut the rolls down to the sizes that you want the bunnies to be, and cut the shape of the ears so they stick up. Or you can add the ears later.
2. Paint the bunnies and set them aside to dry.
3. Once the bunnies are dry you can glue on the googly eyes and poms to make the tail and nose, you will need to let the glue dry. (personally, I use Glue dots. They are awesome and require no drying time!)
4. Add whiskers and a mouth
5. Play with them!
Phew! So that was a lot of stuff. I hope this inspired you to do some fun things with your little sproutlings for Ostara. I know our household will be busy, busy, busy!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
