Homemade Water Beads

Brrr! It is quite chilly today, nothing like one would expect for the end of July! Yesterday Joseph wore boots because he complained that his feet were cold. However he was among the group of complainers when I said it is to cold to go swimming.

Have any of you ever used water beads for sensory play? I was going to buy some but found a recipe online for edible water beads. Since the homemade version was cheaper I decided to try them.

I put a scoop of pearls in each dish so I would have multi colored water beads

Sloppy, goopy play!

I wasn't impressed with the results but after rereading the recipe I discovered it called for instant large pearl tapioca and I had the regular kind. The balls were kind of sticky but I added water to them and the girls played with them for quite awhile. I added fresh water when they were finished playing and stored them in the refrigerator for several days. They eventually began smelling sour. Sometime I want to make them using the correct tapioca or maybe I should just buy the real thing. 

HOMEMADE WATER BEADS

Instant Large Pearl Tapioca

water

Bring water to a boil, add tapioca and boil five minutes. I boiled mine longer since I didn't have the instant kind. Rinse thoroughly in cold water, drain and add food coloring. Let set five minutes then wash in cold water and enjoy!

One of our cats killed a baby bird this morning. Kiana and Joseph were so upset. Kiana couldn't stop crying and Joseph promptly set to work building a cat trap. I asked what he plans to do with the cat when he traps it. He thought he will just let it live in the trap. I told him that wouldn't be kind. His next thought was to build a fence in the woods and pen it up so it couldn't catch any more birds. Tristan saw the bird just before the cat got it and said it's leg was twisted so I tried to explain that this way the bird didn't need to suffer. Neither Kiana nor Joseph thought that made a difference but Joseph did give up on building the fence. Both children are back to loving their cats.