Months ago, I found an activity on Pinterest from a blog called Play, Create, Explore that looked promising. You can find the original post here. The mom on that blog washed and dried a bunch of egg shells and put them in a bowl for her son to play with. I pinned the activity to save for a day when I was using lots of eggs, and then I forgot about it.
Fast forward to Friday night. I found a breakfast recipe for an asparagus and mushroom strata that appealed to me because you prepare it the night before, and, in the morning, you just pop it in the oven (that pin can be found right here). We were having company on Saturday morning. I thought being able to make the meal the night before would save me from having to get up early, cook, and then clean up the kitchen. Anyway, it called for eight eggs. I was stacking the cracked eggshells in an empty egg carton, trying to decide if there was anything I could do with them, and I remembered the pin.
I washed the eggs, and then I spritzed them with some anti-bacterial spray. I left them overnight to dry. Normally, I try to let my kids get dirty and exposed to the environment, but salmonella isn't something I wanted to expose Joanna to. So, I made sure they were clean and sanitized.
Fast forward to Friday night. I found a breakfast recipe for an asparagus and mushroom strata that appealed to me because you prepare it the night before, and, in the morning, you just pop it in the oven (that pin can be found right here). We were having company on Saturday morning. I thought being able to make the meal the night before would save me from having to get up early, cook, and then clean up the kitchen. Anyway, it called for eight eggs. I was stacking the cracked eggshells in an empty egg carton, trying to decide if there was anything I could do with them, and I remembered the pin.
I washed the eggs, and then I spritzed them with some anti-bacterial spray. I left them overnight to dry. Normally, I try to let my kids get dirty and exposed to the environment, but salmonella isn't something I wanted to expose Joanna to. So, I made sure they were clean and sanitized.
In the morning, I put some egg shells in a shallow bowl for both Jo and Oliver. They were both very curious about the eggs and picked them up and examined them.
It didn't take Oliver long to figure out that he could use the palms of his hands to smash the eggs. I was a little worried the shells would be sharp enough to cut his hands, but that never happened.
Oliver really got a kick out of smashing the egg shells with his palms. He was disappointed when he finished smashing all of his eggs. It took all of two minutes, and when they were smashed, he was done.
Joanna, on the other hand, kept playing! I kept an eye on her to make sure she didn't try to eat shells. She enjoyed picking off little pieces of shells. Eventually, she started to smash them, too.
Smash!
And then she enjoyed making them rain:
Andrew and I both had fun watch the kids smash eggs. I like seeing the kids explore new things and think. The activity was fun for Oliver, but it was definitely more age appropriate for Jo. She had an absolute blast with those egg shells. They weren't too messy to clean up. I just had to give the kitchen a quick sweep.
This is an activity I'll definitely remember to do again, whenever I make something that uses a lot of eggs. Next time, I'll give the kids the potato masher like the mother did on her blog. I give this activity an A!
And, in case you're wondering how that strata came out, it was delicious. It smelled insanely good, and my mouth watered the whole time it was in the oven. It came out bubbling like a lasagna. The recipe is definitely a keeper! Both Pinterest pins were a win. Yay!
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