Fun with Water Beads
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Have you tried the many fun activities with water beads?! Even as an adult I find myself
Note: Water beads are awesome and fun, but can also be dangerous. Don’t let children use them unattended, eat them, put them in their ears, etc. Whether they are dehydrated or saturated, they can cause problems in our bodies and they don’t show up on x-rays! Use with caution!
Rainbow Water Beads
To make a rainbow you have three options: buy already sorted colors, sort the beads yourself, or dye them (instructions below!)
Either
Sensory Box
We pull this box out while I make dinner. My son plays and squishes happily while I cook, and when I have a moment I sit down and join him! It really does help relax you, and I honestly think we could squeeze them for hours!
Glowing Beads (with blacklight)
These are clear beads which we added water and the liquid parts of yellow highlighters too while they grew. Honestly, I’d just go for buying the glow-in-the-dark water beads!
Stress Ball
We did this with all the nieces and nephews and each made several. I pre-soaked the water beads and had a whole bucket of them. Fill an empty water bottle about half full with the water beads. Blow up the balloon a little bit, and without letting the air out, slip it over the opening of the water bottle. Turn the bottle over and watch all the water beads bounce into the (still inflated) balloon! Take the filled balloon off the bottle and gently let the air out so the balloon condenses down around the water beads, tie it off, and voila! You have a stress ball!
We also tried leaving the air in the balloon. You can bounce the water beads all over but the balloons is more likely to bounce.
Also, I warned my sisters and brother that I wasn’t responsible for breaking stress balls…with enough play they can pop! The good news is that after they dehydrate they clean up easily. The bad news is sometimes you can’t wait for them to dehydrate, and when they’re full they’re harder to clean up!
Glow Stick Beads
We added blue beads and blue glow sticks to a bottle for a little night-time fun! The water beads help magnify the light making the glow sticks appears to glow brighter and farther. This would be fun for later sporting events or fireworks watching parties or campouts!
Dye Clear Beads
I really enjoyed dying clear beads! The creative part of me loved mixing just the color I wanted in water, adding the beads and watching the magic. If you’re doing something in just one color, and if it’s more of an adult project, I totally recommend dying the beads. In fact, these things are actually designed as soil replacement, and I love this potted plant with red water beads I have in my kitchen:
But, there are down-sides toyed beads. First, as they dehydrate, they leak the dyed water. If you used food coloring, it stains. Stains your kids, the surfaces they’re playing on, etc. The second downside is that if you mix the colors, the leaking colors all mix together and then even if they rehydrate (like you have them in a water bottle) the rehydrate as the brownish color of all the colors mixed together.
What fun things have you done with water beads?