I’ve seen so many great play ideas using water beads. My first introduction to them was through Play At Home Mom It’s something I’ve been wanting to do with Noah for months. I do try to create all our play activities with items we already have in the house. I was also hesitant because the packaging just said “polymers”. Plastic. Ugh. But after seeing Noah’s face while he played with the beads at a friend’s house earlier today, I caved. We picked some up on our way home.
I reconciled my decision by reminding myself there are so many applications for play with these beads. And honestly, I think it’s probably less plastic and chemicals than what goes into a pack of markers which never last nearly as long as these would.
I was actually pretty excited to goosh my hands in the tub of beads. I immediately wanted to jump in (figuratively and well, literally too) and do all the extension activities involving them. But you know, he was just happy playing with them as they were. There would be plenty of time and opportunities to get fancy.
So I took a cue from the boy and enjoyed the moment with him.
These are the two varieties we bought. One to play in right away and more to hydrate later. The dehydrated variety is easily more economical though.
Just enjoying our new beads. After this photo we did add some dry beads and water which more than doubled our stash.
Noah wanted to play water beads with Daddy when he came home from work. They added food coloring. Because the beads weren’t fully hydrated yet they absorbed some of the colors.
Before bed I added a bunch of water so the beads could fully hydrate overnight. It was so beautiful!