How had I possibly forgotten about water beads? They’re one of the greatest ways to keep a toddler busy plus engage them in sensory play, but I literally had forgotten they exist. Well, a friend happened to remind me, and it was high time for Veronika to get her first experience with this awesome material.

If you’re not familiar with water beads, they start out the size of about a mustard seed, but expand overnight into marble-sized squishy balls. Look for them in the floral section of craft stores. As with all small, round objects, supervise play closely to avoid choking.

I soaked the water beads in a bin and then in the morning we added… boats! I thought the maritime theme would be perfect for summer.

Veronika loved that she could sail the boats through the beads. She also loved loading the beads into one boat and then pouring them into another.

At first our bin didn’t exactly look like an ocean since I had all the colors of the rainbow. I started to separate out just the blues and greens. It was starting to look a bit more like the Atlantic…

I didn’t finish the task, though, because then Veronika wanted the cup I was filling with the non-ocean colors so she could practice her pouring and scooping.

She then started carrying some of the beads around in the cups, at which point I had to direct her back to the bin. Because yes, the one problem with water beads is that they get real messy if you let them escape!