With Easter just around the corner, parents across the country are readying themselves to prepare Easter egg hunts this weekend.
A favourite part of Easter celebrations for many, there's a lot of fun to be had. But as families and organisers will know, it is important to make sure everyone gets an equal amount of chocolate.
Whatever the reason - perhaps your eldest is a born scavenger or your youngest likes to take their time - it's no fun if one child ends up with all the goodies and another has to go without.
Thankfully, there's a simple solution to ensure it's a fair game - one that doesn't involve dividing the treasure at the end of the hunt.
Whether your children love traipsing around the garden with a bucket in hand or prefer scouring the house during a scavenger hunt, you can make sure everyone gets a chance to enjoy themselves by setting one simple rule.
If you allocate certain eggs to every player, then you know nobody will end up with more than their fair share. As to how you set up the rules, there are lots of choices.
First up, you can colour-coordinate the eggs by buying several in different shades or adding colourful sticky notes. Then give every player a colour to find i.e. child one searches for blue eggs and child two collects red eggs.
Or you can use the same rule but with letters. For a fun twist, why not spell out your children's names with the eggs, then challenge them to find their own letters?
Equally, you can number the eggs or create a pattern the players need to follow. Then you can be sure there are enough eggs to go around as nobody will be returning to find egg one, when they've already collected eggs one, two and three.
If you really want to challenge your little ones, you can add clues to the numbers and create a map for them to follow as part of a scavenger hunt.
Depending on your egg selection, you could also instruct them to find one of each of the chocolate prizes up for grabs.
For example, tell the youngsters they need to find three small eggs and one medium-sized chocolate before they receive a clue to find the winning prize.
Or if none of that appeals, another simple solution includes dividing your playing space by the number of players before sending everyone to search their own area.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with letting everyone loose, then sharing out the goodies at the end of the game, if that's what your family enjoys. But if you want to make sure every player gets a chance to enjoy the thrill of the search - and the joy of finding Easter eggs - then there are steps you can take to help.
How do you organise your Easter egg hunt? Let us know in the comments below
