Water Beads!

Our activity for this week was Water Beads.  I have been reading about them on other blogs, and really wanted to try them.   When you look at them in pictures, it looks like marbles, but let me tell you, they are much cooler!

Here we are getting ready.  I had two colors, Yellow and Green.  Austin Picked Green.   (We got the water beads at walmart in the floral section for about $2 a packet) They start out super small!

 

We poured them into a bowl.  Austin doesn't think they look like much fun at this point.

We added 2 quarts of water....and the water turned really green!!! The instructions said to let soak for 6 hours.  We set the timer for 2 hours so we could come back and check on them. 

They look a little bigger Mom, (And of course...much cooler on the light table!)  Can I touch them?

They feel slimy!  Lets set the timer again and come back when they are done.

They are Huge! 

They are fun to pour from container to container.

Lets fill up this smaller container....

And S...H....A...K...E    it up!

Then I hid swizzle sticks (75% off chrismas decorations) in the beads and let him dig around for them. 

 

Things we learned.

-Next time I'll use a little bit warmer water to start with.

-Stress with your child that squeezing them will break them. (they turn into jello if you smush them..not the end of the world, but not as much fun)

-Water beads bounce - a lot.   We spent a lot of time chasing them around the kitchen floor. 

-Austins hands (and mine) did get a little bit green, but it's all gone today ( I made sure we washed our hands after we played because these are not the 'toy' water beads)

-If you have long fingernails...you will puncture them when sticking your hands in so be careful

All in all, water beads were a huge hit.  We'll be playing with them all week.