Friday was, off and on, a rainy afternoon. I couldn't decide whether or not to go out with the kids and face the rain knowing that it was intermittent, or just enjoy some inside activities. Big Bro made the decision for me. Here is what we did:
1. Water Beads
These beads are intended to be used to put in a vase so that you can arrange flowers without having them flop around and ruin your vision of a fabulous bouquet. They are also great for kids (who no longer put things in their mouths) to explore. They come in tiny packages and you hydrate them in water. Beads the size of a crumb turn into bouncy, translucent balls.The kids loved feeling them, burying toys in them, pouring them in and out of cups. Adults enjoy them too because they feel really neat and are so pretty. You have to keep them moist otherwise they start to dry and shrink back down to their original size.
Eventually Lil Sis decided that the best way to play in them was to sit in the box. This combined with the fact that they had been in use already for 2 weeks meant they were getting kind of slimy. Some of the beads start to break apart too after lots of play.
What to do? You don't have to give up on them immediately. I washed them
in 2 batches. I just needed a large colander, plus a new large clean
container to put the clean half of the washed beads into while I cleaned
the second half, and the original container itself. Then they were
(mostly) good as new. Beware though, they do bounce and roll, so if your
kids start throwing them out of the box there will be lots of sweeping
to do.
2. Moon Sand
This is an activity I saw on Facebook and wanted to try. It's simply flour and baby oil, though I read that vegetable oil works fine too. The recipe I found said to use a 1:8 ratio of baby oil to flour. When done it should look like flour, but stick together when you squeeze it. Well, it didn't quite work that way.
Big Bro and I measured out two cups of flour and 1/4 cup of baby oil,
but it just turned into a bowl of flour with beads of stuck together
flour where the baby oil settled. Not to give up, I added more baby oil
willy-nilly to the mixture until it seemed like a crumbly play doh. I ended up using 1.5 of the baby oil bottles pictured above.
I thought it would be fun to add some food coloring, thinking it would turn everything blue like play doh. Once again, this was not the case. The food coloring stuck in little clumps making it look like "flavor crystal" infused play doh. It does feel super soft and is fun to squish and shape though. Plus it's been sitting uncovered on the table since Friday and is still soft and supple.
3. Chick House Expansion
Since the chicks are growing, the cardboard box under a heatlamp that they call home is getting smaller and smaller. They cheep and flutter at each other in an annoyed fashion. To try and minimize the tension I explained to Big Bro how I could cut a hole in their box, plus another smaller cardboard box we had on hand. Putting them side by side in the tub where they live gave them a whole new room to spread out into.
It took them a while to be daring enough to try the new room, but later that evening two had moved into the smaller box while 3 remained in the large box. Success!
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