They say you don't know busy until you have a baby. They say you don't know crazy busy until you have two kids and that's what I decided to do plus start Peekaboo Baby on the side (e.g. between sleeping babies.) So I'm big on finding activities that keep my 25 month old busy that doesn't require me to turn on the tv or iPad (again, nothing wrong with that, but I save it for dinner prep time.) 

So I have discovered COLOURED RICE, and it has rocked my toddler's world. So I thought I would share the love and the tips I have to keep things as non-messy as possible.

Coloured rice is a super versatile sensory play material and can simply be stored in a ziplock bag for years and years without going bad. The way I made my coloured rice was so easy! I was done in 2 minutes.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put rice in a ziplock bag.

2. Put paint or food colouring into the bag and shake till rice is the colour intensity you like.

I totally preferred the results from the paint than food colouring though the texture of the rice is less smooth than food colouring

3. Spread rice out on a tray (I covered it with cling wrap first) to dry for about an hour.

Done

ACTIVITIES

1. Pretend Play - I placed my coloured rice with my toddler's cooking toys, and she went to town scooping, stirring & "cooking' her rice. She played with this for over 30 minutes which is forever in toddler time.

2. Puzzle Hiding - I hid her puzzle pieces in a bucket of coloured rice, and my toddler loved this extra level of fun with her jigsaw solving.

3. Colour Learning - I wanted to help my toddler learn her colours, so I created a colour themed bin with coloured rice. I started with pink as she confused it with red, so I made some pink rice and put all these shades of pink objects inside a bin. I also liked showing her the different shades pink can be.

TIP to Keep Things as Non Messy as Possible

Use a cloth play mat underneath

I found a slippery playmat (like those splat mats) made the rice roll around too much and caused more mess

Use inside a giant container bucket instead

Don't stress about the mess - I have to vacuum every night anyways!