Water Beads

(E was 27 months old.)

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You’ll need:

• Water beads. {In this activity, we used ones that were already hydrated but since have bought ones that need to be hydrated first but come in a lot of great colors.}
• Tray, bowl or similar to hold the beads.
• Whatever tools and accessories you can think of (optional).

How it worked for us:

I’d read so much about using water beads for sensory play with toddlers and seen awesome photos, so when I finally happened across a package of them locally, I just had to buy them. E picked out the color, and off we went to try them out.

{Ours were ready to go, if yours are dry, you need to soak them in water for several hours before use.}

She started out pouring them between bowls

E put them in a larger bowl to pick them up, put them down and let them roll around

Even Papa’s arrival didn’t distract her for more than a few seconds, and he was fascinated as well and started playing right alongside her. {The first thing he tried to do was show E how to bounce the beads off the tabletop… I saw it coming and managed to tell him to stop it just in time…}

I didn’t expect E to be able to squish the beads to the point of breaking but she sure was. She went through a bunch but once she’d broken them apart, she just left them, so I was fine with it and didn’t worry about anything bad happening.

In fact, she never seemed to even consider putting the beads in her mouth, either intact or broken.

A very few of the beads jumped off the table but it really wasn’t much, and E was able to get them all and put them back in the bowl when we were done.

What I learned:

• E LOVED this activity, and at her request, we’ve played with water pearls almost daily since the first time we tried it.
• The beads feel awesome on your skin, and rolling them around is fun – even for adults!
• They are pretty bouncy but E really kept them under control quite well. We had very few strays that we were able to pick up during clean-up. I’d expected much worse {especially given E’s tendency to dump sensory materials on the table – she hasn’t done that with water beads so far}.
• It was a real low-mess activity for us, clean-up was really quick.
• As soon as the beads are damaged even slightly, they are much less bouncy.

Additional suggestions:

There are so many things you can do with water beads! We started slowly, just experiencing the feel of them but I already have lots of ideas for future activities:

• Mix different colors.
• Add some glow sticks and turn off the light.
• Freeze them.
• Place them in water.
• Add shaving cream.
• Add ice.

Have you played with water beads? Did your kids like it? Did YOU like it? Leave me a comment!

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