Coloured Rice Sand

Aiden loves his sandbox. Everytime we are in the yard he walks up to his sandbox, a red crab given to us by a friend from work, says "Eyes" while pointing to the crab's big googly eyes and then say "Appy", which is Aiden's version of the word open. After I take off the lid Aiden excitedly dives into the sandbox and proceeds to sift, pour, and mould the sand. He likes to bury toys and then retrieve them using woodchips as tools. He also uses his cups and pretends to drink the sand (ok, on his first few times in the sandbox he did actually put some sand in his mouth but spat it out pretty quickly and lived to tell the tale).

But now that the weather is getting colder we can't play outside in the sandbox as much as we used to, which is a shame as he does love it so. I suppose if we had a mud room or an area in our house that isn't carpeted we could always bring the sandbox inside, but unfortunately this isn't the case. So what to do instead?

Coloured Rice Sand
The Recipe
Rice
Vinegar
Food Colouring
Several bowls
A cookie sheet
1. Put rice in several bowls, as many as you want different colours of sand.
2. Pour a small amount, maybe a tsp, of vinegar on the rice and stir it up to coat the rice.
3. Pour food colouring in each bowl and stir to coat the rice. Depending on your little person's age and development you can get them to help you with this.
4. Pour the rice out onto a cookie sheet to dry. Leave overnight.
5. Pour the coloured rice into a shallow container.
6. Provide your little person with spoons, cups, toys (cars are great as they can drive through the sand) and containers and watch them explore the texture, sound and feel of their indoor sand.

The Review
I have to say I was a but skeptical of how engaging this activity would be, but I am now a believer - Aiden loved this activity, so much so that he spent a good half-hour to fourty-five minutes playing with the sand. He loved scooping it into cups, pouring it back into the container, and digging in it with his hands.

The Tips
Make sure you have a dustpan and brush handy. Along with pouring it into the container, Aiden enjoyed pouring it on the floor. The sound of rice falling on hardwood is way too enticing and fun for a little guy to resist! To keep the floor from getting too slippery I swept up the rice and put it back into the container whenever Aiden wasn't looking.

Happy rice dying,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)