well, i'm finally at a loss with my son being in public school. so far whenever non-vegan activities have been announced i've insinuated myself into the kindergarten classroom in order to offer up vegan alternatives for the kids that would like them. but this month, they are going to dye easter eggs. they are supposed to purchase their own eggs, hard boil them, and bring them into class.

what on earth should i do? my son wants to participate in easter celebrations, but he doesn't want to take part in the egg-dying; and i sure as hell ain't buying eggs.

aargh!! good one. i dread the day when this darkens my doorstep!! if you could get into the classroom for it, why not have a station where kids could either paint or decorate with glitter those foam eggs or wooden ones? that way your son could partcipate and it would provide others with an alternative that they might even prefer.

I bought some white plastic (non-separating) eggs and drew on them with Sharpies (they make metallic ones) for my cousins...I don't think you can dye them, though.

You know...where I live, Easter activities aren't allowed because non-Christians feel left out, and though I live in the South, my school-system is pretty PC (though the county south of mine is bad, I hear...I also hear 1 in every 4 households has a KKK member...but I digress). I'm sure he wants to participate, it sucks being the weird one, all left out, and it's cool that he doesn't want to dye eggs (I hope my children end up like that!), but maybe he can do an alternate activity?

Have I ever told anyone that next to Christmas, Easter is my least-favorite holiday?

I've been wondering about this myself. I had lots of fun coloring eggs with crayons and then dying them. To dye the eggs, they'd have to have an absorbant surface. So maybe wooden, hmm. How about buy plastic eggs and wrap something porous around them? Like white sticky paper of some sort?

I have an idea. Buy some of those plastic eggs that they sell, and experiment with filling them with some kind of release agent and plaster, let them dry and pop them out. There he will have a plaster egg.
This will absorb dye, stuff will stick to it and it will last forever :)

i say have him bring in some delicious-smelling vegan brownies the day of the activity - it'll make all the other kids so jealous of him that he won't care about the dumb easter eggs ;)

I was wondering about this too. RichBeBe...your idea is so cool! I have no idea what a release agent is though. Where would I get something like that?

I found a bunch of stuff online, but none is definitive. I would think you could contact a place that does Plaster or potery and they could help pretty easily.

Can you dye styrofoam?

Colud you cover a plastic egg in cheesecloth or ome other cloth? Can you dye that?

(These ideas may be way off, but please remember I'm a guy!)

What about moving away from the egg theme and offering to go in and help "weave" little baskets out of construction paper. You could cut strips of colorful paper out prior to going and then go in and sit and work with any kids that may prefer to do the baskets to the eggs. Why does it have to be all about eggs?

I saw someone suggest someplace else making eggs out of sculpey clay.

Are you looking for an alternative for real eggs, or are you looking for an activity that doesn't involve eggs (either real ones or fake ones) at all?

If looking for an alternative to using real eggs, you could try this... I'm not sure if it will work, but it might be a fun experiment!

How about making papier-mache eggs to decorate?

All you need is some balloons (or you could even use large plastic eggs), some white tissue paper, and some papier-mache glue (1 c. flour, 1.25 c water, mixed smooth). (If using balloons... an adult can stick a pin through the papier-mache egg when it's dry to pop it.) I would think you'd be able to dip the completed project into colored dye without the whole thing falling apart, if you use enough layers of tissue in the mache.

If trying to avoid the egg issue altogether... I also loved MoonDansyr's idea about weaving construction paper baskets.

Orrrrr... how about dyeing white carnations? You'll need some white carnations, sturdy paper cups, water, and food coloring. Snip the carnation stems at an angle. (The carnation should be tall enough to sit well in the cup, but the shorter you can make it, the faster the dye will reach the petals). Have the kids add the food dye to the water in the cups (supervise this, of course... but you want them to use quite a bit of food coloring), and set the carnations in the cups. Ask them what they think will happen. By the end of the day, the carnations should be turning colors! This is a great science lesson, to boot--the kids will see that plants "drink" water too. The dye helps us see where the water is going in the flower.

Molly gave me an idea...
Fill a balloon with plaster, and there you got a plaster egg :)

A "release agent" is any material that works successfully to keep a casting from sticking to a mold -- enables the casting to be "released" from the mold instead of sticking to it. With a plastic mold, a thin smear of petroleum jelly inside it should keep plaster from sticking to it. Tho some kinds of plastic are sufficiently slippery as to not require any addition of a release agent.

You can make a plaster cast of a real egg, and then use that to cast plaster models of the original egg -- that way you can get as many egg-shaped plaster things as you want, starting with one egg. Plus you could lie and tell people that you made the first cast from a carved egg, even if you actually used a real egg.

MoonDansyr........the reason that eggs are used during the Spring season in MANY cultures is that they represent fertility and Spring is definately a time for that. :) Eggs are something that have been used during the Spring in various ways for a very looooong time all over the world.

Yes, I understand that this all stems from pagan traditions taken over by monotheists.

That said ... the whole reason they're dying eggs probably has nothing to do with Sping and its link to fertility ... and I'm sure s/he has no intentions of explaining anything about Ostara or any other "pagan" traditions relating eggs to Spring. It's probably just an activity the teacher thought would be *fun* that s/he associated with *Easter* That said, "Easter" could encompass any number of fun activities the kids might enjoy. Knowing there are a significant number of the population severely allergic to eggs, I would think that an alternative activity, completely separate from "eggs" would be a good idea.

Ohhhhh...when you said, "Why does it have to be all about eggs?"...I thought you meant, "in general". Doh! :)

I think the egg symbolism is kinda neat though, I would love to teach my kids about it and explain to them how all the different cultures celebrate Spring and use eggs in different ways.....and not just the pagan stuff. That would be cool to draw a picture of an egg and color it in a creative way. But I really like RichBeBe's idea. It is just too cool.

No-one mentioned chocolate eggs ?

Originally posted by Herself
Ohhhhh...when you said, "Why does it have to be all about eggs?"...I thought you meant, "in general". Doh! :)

I think the egg symbolism is kinda neat though, I would love to teach my kids about it and explain to them how all the different cultures celebrate Spring and use eggs in different ways.....and not just the pagan stuff. That would be cool to draw a picture of an egg and color it in a creative way. But I really like RichBeBe's idea. It is just too cool.

Last year, I dyed eggs with my girls for Ostara (they are ovo-lacto) ... after balancing them on their end before boiling. We had an absolute GREAT Ostara last year. We missed it this year, darn it. We're not really pagan, but we're also not Christian. I do have a lot of respect for paganism and lean toward many of those traditions because I am very nature oriented. I also embrace Buddhism and Native Americanism ... but then again, those are both considered pagan, too, so I guess I *am* pagan ... but not in the "traditional" sense. Anyway, I plan on trying to slowly teach them about all cultures and holidays from around the world and the origins of said holidays. They're a little young to understand it all right now, but we can slowly get there.

Oh wow...your children are really priveleged to have you to educate them about this. :) They must have a blast learning about different cultures by experiencing them. Kudos to you!

thank you, so much, for all your suggestions! i love the plaster egg idea, and i do have some experience (from my art college days) with casting, but i'm afraid i just don't have the time or energy to do something quite so involved.

i think we'll check out the local craft shop to find wooden or foam eggs, as someone suggested. we can use regular paints and glitter to do them up. i can't believe i didn't think of that myself.

thanks again! great suggestions!

"Native Americanism"? What is that? Native Americans were incredibly diverse in their beliefs. Some tribes/nations were wasteful, some cruel, some abused women, others gave them the equivalent of political power.

How is it possible to embrace "Native Americanism"?

Originally posted by Kreeli
we can use regular paints and glitter to do them up.


Do you also have "vegan" paint brushes?

The "filament" types should be vegan.

Um, Tame makes a good point. No offense, but there is no such thing as "Native Americanism." My husband is full-blood Shoshone, and his beliefs are quite different from my best friend, who is of Cherokee descent. Native Americans are as diverse in their beliefs as any other group - they are not all pagan. "Pagan was the name given to idolaters in the early Christian church, because the villagers, being most remote from the centers of instruction, remained for a long time unconverted. Heathen has the same origin. Pagan is now more properly applied to rude and uncivilized idolaters, while heathen embraces all who practice idolatry."

While "pagan" may now mean those individuals who are following a naturalist or Gaian belief system, that is not its original definition. Just an observation.