Happy Easter! As our kiddos get excited about all the fun activities and family bonding time that comes with the celebration of Easter, don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to squeeze in a little extra lesson between all the easter egg hunts and egg decorating activities.  

Whether your family is religious or not, families all around the world take advantage of this special Sunday to spend some extra time with their loved ones. Just like our furry little white friends, we as humans strive to have relationships and friendships with those around us. In fact, every creature desires to have some companionship. Don't let the quietness of these fluffy animals trick you! These naturally sociable creatures need the companionship of their kind to avoid loneliness and live happily, just like humans! Though they may not get along immediately, as bunnies require a period of pairing to get used to the presence of another bunny, once the pairing is successful, they are almost inseparable. Think about when you first meet your siblings! Initially, the kiddos may not know how to interact, but once the two kiddos spend more time with each other and grow together, they eventually become inseparable and form lifelong relationships. Well, so is the case with bunnies

Can Bunnies Work Together? 

So if bunnies are naturally sociable creatures and are friends with other bunnies, are they also capable of working together? Crazy enough, yes, they can! I know it might sound a bit bizarre, as some of you might think, how do you work together without being able to verbally communicate? Even though we never hear them speak words out loud like humans, bunnies can still communicate through other methods. Remember, there are many forms of communication. Can you think of other possible ways to communicate without using words? Well, if you thought of body language then, ding ding ding, you are correct! Like many other animals out there, bunnies use their body language to communicate. In addition, they also rely on making noises that are uninterpretable by humans.  

Though their communication style may differ from humans, just like humans, bunnies are also more than capable of relying on each other to accomplish a common goal! Together, bunnies take care of each other by grooming each other. Additionally, pair-bonded bunnies tend to be healthier, as they are better at dealing with stress. In the wild, with all the various predators that exist, teamwork is a crucial aspect of the survival of these tiny creatures. When encountering danger, these wild rabbits send secret messages to each other, warning others of the predator. Though their coded messages are slightly different from our cries of warning to others amidst a dangerous situation, they too rely on communication to help each other. During these situations, rabbits flash the white on their tails or even thump their hind legs as a warning sign to others.  These instances of collaboration may appear very minimal, but within specific species of rabbits, the act of teamwork becomes more apparent. European rabbits specifically live in groups as big as one hundred, known as colonies. Together, they live in the ground where they work together to feed and live. After all, just like what John C. Maxwell says, “teamwork makes the dream work" [20]!

Just as bunnies and rabbits work together, humans are more than capable of working together towards a common goal. According to expert Dr.Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist, and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development says, “Good relationships keep us happier and healthier”[1]. This Easter, let's appreciate the relationship of those around us, as we could not have gotten this far in life without the help of others around us. Let's channel our inner bunny and embrace this day by spending time with those we love and trying out activities that challenge us to put our teamwork skills to the test. 

Exclusive Insider’s Look: Can Bunnies Work Together? 

Check out how MEandMine designers test it out with our new teamwork prototypes: 

Egg-citing Sale 

With all the talk about teamwork, make sure you check out MEandMine's Easter sale to snag your Award-Winning STEAM play kits that enable kids to develop a resilient core while including everyone in the family. At MEandMine, we see an opportunity to engage kids from less of an authoritative perspective and more of a partnership through self-initiated play. We're obsessed with creating family bonding experiences where the line between fun and learning is blurred.

Creating a Family Bonding Experience of a Lifetime with MEandMine  

Aha! Tantrums: iCalm Galaxy

Help! The recent big bang has made our alien friends overwhelmed with emotions. Let’s join the MEandMine rescue squad and the iCalm guardians on a mind-blowing space rescue to save our galaxy from emotional chaos! Learn all sorts of fun ways to regulate our emotions through building and playing your own board game! 

Aha! Teamwork: Coral-Laboration 

Our sea friend and her baby egg are in danger! Ocean rescue squad, let’s team up and work together to escort sea friends and their babies home safely. Learn to take turns, work together, and communicate better in this action-packed adventure under the sea! 

Check out some fun activities/games you and your little ones can play for Easter! 

With Easter, many families take advantage of this day to spend time with their families. Though family bonding time is extremely important many of us parents may find ourselves stumped in coming up with new ideas on fun activities to do on Easter Sunday. Well, don't you worry, our team here at MEandMine came up with this list of endless fun for you and your kiddos! Check out some fun activities and games you and your little ones can play at home for Easter! 

1. Silent Charades Bunny Edition

Channel your inner bunny and try out this Egg-silent game of charades! Get it? It's an exciting and silent activity! Take turns going through this deck of cards and while only using your body language and occasional noises, try your best to act out the word on the card. 

2. Emotional Eggs

A spin on your classic easter egg decorating activity. Pick an emotion and decorate your egg to resemble the emotion you picked.  

What you will need:  

• Hard-boiled eggs  

• Watercolor or Markers  

Can’t think of an emotion to draw, try the list below!  

• happy  

• angry  

• sad 

• scared 

• nervous  

• calm  

• silly  

• proud  

• love  

• confused  

• surprised 

• excited 

• hungry  

• irritated  

• distracted  

• brace 

• disgusted  

• creative  

• sick 

3. Exploding Eggs

Go outside and get your google and science lab coat on for this next experiment. Check out what happens when you bottle in your emotions.  

What you will need:  

• plastic easter eggs 

• Alka-seltzer tablets  

Water  

Instructions:  

1. Add some water to the bottom half of the egg  

2. Place the bottom half of the egg on top of the empty toilet paper roll that is placed on the ground. (make sure you cut the empty toilet paper roll to an appropriate length that can keep the egg upward)  3. Place 1 to 2 Alka-Seltzer tablets into the egg and quickly cap on the top half of the plastic easter egg  

4. Then take a few steps backward and watch the experiment unfold!  

Application: 

Notice how the top of the egg flies off as the egg bursts? Just like how we hold in our emotions, the more emotions we bottle up inside us, the more overwhelmed we feel. Without the proper coping skills, over time, we might just end up like these emotional explosive eggs. That’s why it’s so important for us to talk about our emotions and learn about all the various caping mechanisms out there to keep us emotionally healthy and happy. Emotions are complicated, but with the appropriate knowledge and a solid support system, they aren’t as scary as they seem! Check out MEandMine’s iCalm Galaxy board game for a fun way to learn about how to regulate your emotions.  

Challenge:  

Work together and figure out how you can make the egg fly higher when it explodes!

4. Easter Egg Rescue

Goal: 

Work together to rescue the Easter eggs  

What you will need:  

• bandana/eye mask (anything that can be used as a blindfold)  

• Plastic easter eggs  

• Cooking spoons/ladle  

• Streamers Tape 

• Huge Plastic bin  

Instructions:  

1. Randomly tape pieces of streamer across the bin. Make sure to leave some areas open.  

2. Then fill the bin with plastic easter eggs  

How to play:  

Dedicate one person to be blindfolded and one person who will give directions  

The goal of the game is to use teamwork and rescue all the easter eggs in the bin using the ladle to scoop out the eggs  

Challenge:  If you have enough people, turn it into a race and see which team can successfully rescue all the eggs first!  

5. Egg-cellent Teamwork: 

What you will need:  

Bucket  

Plastic eggs  

Plastic tablecloth  

Scissors  

Instructions:  

1. Take a huge sheet of a plastic tablecloth and cut a hole in the middle of the plastic tablecloth that is big enough to fit the plastic egg  

2.Then scatter your plastic eggs on the ground  

3. Place the empty bucket far away from the plastic eggs  

How to play: 

Work together to transport each egg safely into the basket  

Challenge:  

Can you get all the eggs in the basket within 5 minutes? 

Resources:

1. Mejia, Z. (2017, October 31). Harvard's longest study of adult life reveals how you can be happier and more successful. CNBC. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/31/this-harvard-study-reveals-how-you-can-be-happier-and-more-successful.html

2. Learn and grow: How teamwork makes the dream work. It's Your Yale. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2022, from https://your.yale.edu/learn-and-grow-how-teamwork-makes-dream-work