A Little Bit of Colored Rice

I'm working on a few posts right now that I am pretty excited about, except that they take lots and lots of thinking skills and after two days of subbing in a row (and one of those days with a class of rowdy kindergarteners) I decided to go "light" and publish this post about my wonderful daughter and her colored rice.

Naomi will be 2 in April and has a lot of energy! She is a very inquisitive child and loves to explore and play just like any child her age. Last week we made an executive decision in our home to turn the television off completely while the kids are awake. It was a wonderful choice for us! Naomi has self-directed a lot of her activities since then which motivated me to make her some new materials to explore. I have just begun using curriculum from Hubbard's Cupboard and I LOVE it. The woman who posts on this site is a homeschooling Christian Momma who posts lesson plans to rival any great school's with activities, objectives and a ton of resources. And? It's free!  It's this teaching Momma's dream come true! The only "complaint" I have about her site is that she a lot of great activities but doesn't include directions on how to do them all, but I've been able to find that information elsewhere so far.

Anyway, Naomi and I have just started the "2's" curriculum from her site and it does not disappoint. In addition to Bible verses, literacy focuses, math ideas and songs, she also suggests sensory ideas. For the month of March the theme is baking and birds. As a part of the baking focus, she suggested filling a sensory tub with colored rice, muffin tins, spoons and mixing bowls. I knew Naomi would love this, so we did this earlier this week.

First, I poured some water and food coloring (4-5 drops) into a small plastic container (old sour cream or larger yogurt containers are great for this), then I poured about a cup and a half of rice in (I just eyeballed it) and stirred until the rice was fully covered with water. I did this with four different containers and four different colors. Then, after the rice had soaked for about 20 minutes, I poured out the water and laid the rice on newspapers to dry overnight.

After the rice dried, I dumped it in Naomi's sensory tub which is just a medium-sized plastic container with a lid.

Then, after tossing in an old muffin tin, some spoons and other tools, I let Naomi have at it!

(Please observe that she is wearing the beautiful necklace 

my friend Erin gave me. She strongly insisted. 

I can't contain her inner diva.)

She played with this tub for an hour and a half before lunch and another 45 minutes after, until I had to drag her away for her nap. She has done it almost every day this week and continues to enjoy it. Does she make a huge mess when she does this? Yes! Who cares? Messes can be cleaned. (She has her own little brush and dustpan from the dollar store to help me sweep up the rice. She can't actually sweep it up well yet, but who cares?)

What a wonderful, very low cost idea that yields hours of fun! Thanks Hubbard's Cupboard!