Water Beads

Have you ever heard of these?  I hadn't until recently when I spotted a post on them over at Play At Home Mom.  They looked really cool and it sounded like the kids went absolutely nuts over them so I thought we'd give them a try.

I purchased a pack at Michael's (they are located in the floral section if you're looking) and you can buy them in two types, already hydrated and ready to go, or dehydrated, which is what we did.  I poured about a fourth of the package into a huge bowl and filled it with water one morning.  By the time Bea was up from her nap they were ready to go.

This was by far her favorite sensory project we've done.  She loved everything about them, the feel, the color, scooping them up and putting them into her bucket and then back into the bowl.  I think we were outside playing with them for well over an hour.  They have this crazy slippery gel like consistency, I think I enjoyed them as much as she did!

The only drawback is that they will break if you squish them too hard.  So now we have bits of water beads all over our backyard, but hey, at least it's not in the house!  I also need to check into storage.  I think you can store them in a Ziploc (minus the water) and they will last a few weeks.  We, of course, forgot them outside overnight and it was a little too cold for them.  Oops!  Or as Bea would say, "Whoop a see" (that's her version of whoops).

I also found this great idea for water beads over at Modern Parents Messy Kids for Easter.  Since I'm not planning on giving her candy and chocolates this would make a great alternative.

Heather

Sugar and Spice

A few months ago I stumbled across a blog through Pinterest called Play At Home Mom.  It's a blog devoted to play based learning and they have a TON of great ideas of things you can do with you kids or that your child can do alone.  I've been slowly assembling a list of all of the projects I want to try out with Bea and I've also been making another list of items to get for her for this type of play.

Today after her nap I decided to try out the first one.  This one was titled Sugar and Spice and basically it was allowing your child to use glue to make pictures with spices.  I chose marjoram, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves but you could really use anything.

This was the first time Bea had used glue and at first it was a little tricky for her.  Pretty soon she figured it out and then the fun began.  She literally played with this until we ran out of spices, which was about 30 minutes.  I think if I would've had more she would have definitely played longer.  She told me halfway through the project that she was "makin dada picture".  And here it is

As we start exploring other projects I'll make sure and write about each of them.

Heather