Last week, on another cool and rainy day, I decided to try dyeing some dried rice to use in a sensory bin - something to keep the kids amused and change up our usual routine of 'cloud dough' or play dough. I used 2 tbsp of vinegar and about 10 drops of food colouring (I used neon colours this time around to get these awesome hues) in 4 small mason jars to colour the rice. With lids on the jars, I shook the vinegar/food colouring solution with about 1.5 cups of rice and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Then, as per the blog posting I found on Pinterest, I baked it for about half an hour in an oven at 250F to dry.
The first time we played, I had the kids on their little picnic table in the kitchen but I found that the rice just went everywhere, so today I threw down a plastic table cloth and let them go.....
Ever since our painting with found objects session that we did last month, the kids have been keen on bringing these trucks into all of our sensory bins and art/craft time! The little tractor and dump truck were super fun in the rice - scooping and filling up with ease!
And the best part was that they seriously played with these few small things for over half an hour! And when we were done, all that was required of clean up was to dump the rice from the plastic sheet back into the container! Voila!
By now it was the normal time that we would be getting ready to head outside to the park. Both kids had been so good this morning but were ready to burn off some energy. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans....so I took a page out of my husband's book for rainy/cold evening activities and we made a fort out of blankets and the kitchen table. This is where the kids had snack today - complete with flashlights and an IKEA tunnel to help us get in and out of the fort. Talk about FUN!
What types of activities do you do with your kids when the weather is too wet or cold to go outside?! Pinterest is giving me lots of good ideas, but I'm always looking for others....
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