If you don't know what these are, let me happily introduce you to the water bead. There are a billion blog posts out there about using them for sensory play, which is how I discovered them. Basically, they are those little hard beads that rehydrate and are used in flower arrangements, but they also make an awesome medium for a sensory activity! Obviously, you'll want to supervise closely, as there are warnings on the bag about not ingesting them. Luckily, we're kind of out of that "everything in the mouth stage" now. I have been wanting to use them for a while now, and the other day I found some ($2.00 a bag) in the floral aisle at Walmart. I bought some pink and purple, rehydrated them, and watched the magic happen!
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| You can't even believe how cool these things are! |
These things are so fun to squish your hands through. I put them in a big plastic container and added a pail a shovels. Chloe loves to swish her hands through them and bury toys in the them. She also realized that she could smoosh her toes in them. I am not lying when I tell you that she played with these for a full HOUR yesterday morning (so nice for a rainy day) and then another 1/2 hour today. They do being to break down a bit after being played with for a while, but I think we'll get another few uses out of them. And the price was right! I am looking forward to using these in the sensory table Mike is going to build this spring (yay)! I think blue beads and ocean toys will be so much fun.
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| Trying them out |
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| It was super fun to make Mickey and Minnie go swimming! |
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| Squishing toes in the water beads |
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| ...and then she really got into it! |
Anyone have any other ideas about how to use water beads?
1 comment:
Those look super fun!! Might need to get some for the boys and try them out!! Thanks for the tip!
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