When Travis was a toddler, I once set him loose with a tray of nothing more than newspaper and water and he kept busy for nearly an hour! So when I spotted this morning’s pile of newspaper about to be recycled, I quickly set up a variation for Veronika.

This time, I cut the newspaper into strips and then set out three jars, each filled with a little water dyed with food coloring.

As soon as she saw the pots of colored water, Veronika asked for paintbrushes! She loved brushing lightly over the newspaper, which quickly soaked up water and color both.

My assumption was that she’d want to drunk the newspaper into the water and see what happened when it got even wetter. It turned out she was much more into the pots of water, and transferring liquid back and forth. But we did pour some over the newspaper and observe how the paper changed from dry to wet.

It was fun to squeeze out the wet newspaper like a sponge, too; it holds surprisingly more than you would think!

The activity was also great practice for scooping water up, to refill her jars.

In sum, she didn’t play quite as long as Travis had as a toddler, but still enjoyed the activity. Prefer your newspaper games dry? Test out our recent fun with indoor newspaper throwing instead!