Cheap Fun

A while ago, Reagan and I went over to play with her friend, Chloe. Chloe's mom, Katie, is fabulous. She does an amazing job of keeping her daughter engaged in activities that are not only fun, but an opportunity for learning and skill progression. That day, the girls spent about 45 minutes playing with colored spaghetti noodles. Well, Reagan played with them and then ate them:) I asked Katie where she had gotten such a great idea, and she turned me on to this great website called Play At Home Mom LLC. This site is FULL of amazing, inexpensive ideas to stay actively engaged with your child/children.

So, one Sunday afternoon, while Reagan napped, I got to work on making some colored rice. Here's the breakdown:

1. Supplies: White vinegar (or rubbing alcohol), sandwich bags, food coloring, rice (I got the cheapest bags - 1 pound for $1)

2. Mix the dye - 1 1/2 tsp vinegar and 15 drops of food coloring

3. Add 1 cup of rice to the dye

4. Mix rice by mushing the bag around until all the pieces are covered. Make sure the bag is SEALED! (I forgot to do this and ended up with green rice all over the floor)

5. Spread rice out on a cookie sheet to dry. I covered mine in foil and then saved the foil for the next time we do this. It was a sunny day, so I just placed the rice outside for about 5-10 minutes and it dried quickly.

6. Final product

I separated a small amount of each color into the bags above and stored the rest in airtight containers for another day.

I just gave Reagan a bunch of small containers filled with rice and some spoons. She played for 40 minutes.

Once the novelty wore off, we decided to make some art with our colored rice. Supplies for this: glue, cardstock, rice and any other things you have on hand. We used old Scrabble tiles and some pieces of thick hemp rope.

Overall, we got almost an hours worth of fun out of this simple activity. Plus we have more rice for another rainy day. I laid out an old sheet for Reagan to play on to make the clean up easier. It was so simple to scoop the rice from the sheet and put it into a large container for storage. Reagan did have a tough time getting the glue out because the bottle was empty, so I definitely suggest getting a small bottle of Elmer's glue for little ones. 

Thanks Play At Home Mom LLC for the great idea!