We've been loving the weather the last while and have been taking every opportunity to get outdoors. The hosepipe ban has meant that we've not been able to fill the paddling pool, but we've been improvising with water beads.
If you've never tried water beads, I highly recommend them for all sorts of fun activities - just check the water beads pins on Pinterest for some ideas (and follow us on Pinterest, while you're there!)
One of our recent activities with water beads has been painting, and it's a great way to have messy play
To start with, you'll need:
- Water beads (you could use marbles too, if you have enough)
- Cups
- Paints
- Paper
- A box or tray
In preparation:
Put the water beads in water overnight to swell them up.
To paint:
Separate the beads into three (or however many paints you want to use) glasses, then blob some paint into each. You can mix them up, but leaving your toddler to do it is just as much fun!
Putting the glasses next to the box, which has a sheet of paper inside it, your toddler will soon drop them into the box and start rubbing, swirling, tilting and generally getting as messy as is physically possible!
We used one of our food delivery boxes, which has a hole in the bottom - I just taped that up during play and when we were ready to finish up, took the tape off and just poured the beads back into glasses. Wash off the paint, wash out the glasses and put the toddler in the bath!
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