Mini Treasure Hunt

1 / 21 / 139 / 12 / 13

Recently, Gracen has become borderline obsessed with all things searching-based. She loves a good game of hide-and-seek, she adores playing ‘I Spy’, and there’s nothing better than a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ book. So this afternoon, after a busy morning filled with a morning walk, a first attempt at skating, and an impromptu hair cut, we decided to pull together a low-key searching activity indoors.

First, we rounded up some coins (aka treasure) and gave them a good scrub in hot soapy water {because money grosses me out}. (Of course you could always use something different as treasure…plastic gems, tiny toys, play money, etc.)

After drying off the coins, we spread them out on a plastic serving tray…

And hid the treasure with the coloured rice we made months ago (plain rice, sand, flour, dry pasta, beans, and cornmeal would all be good alternatives).

Voila – treasure hidden.

Next, we gathered a few treasure finding tools.

We laid our tray down on a towel for easier clean up, retrieved one of Miss G’s piggy banks for treasure collection, and the search began.

Searching…

Found something… Jackpot!

Clink! Into the piggy bank (cue Miss G’s ‘money, money, moneeeeey’ song and dance).

Grae had so much fun with this little game that I’m certain it will sit out in our living room for the next few days being enjoyed by our little search-obsessed girl time and time again.

♥

Keep up with all the Mama.Papa.Bubba. fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.

Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

6 / 20 / 123 / 24 / 14

Today we gathered up some supplies, transferred the rice we dyed yesterday into a bin, and headed out into the backyard for some fun.

Gracen helped me pick out the items to add to our rainbow rice sensory bin. We kept things pretty simple today… Spoons, containers, cups, and a teapot (hmm… I wonder whose selection that was!)

First job – take everything out and get those colours mixed together!

The result? Rainbow rice!

Soooo beautiful!

Next job – filling up every single container in sight.

And then things got wild. For a while, it was raining rice, and shortly after the whole bucket tipped over, Grae still inside. The good thing was that Miss G found picking it all up and putting it back in the bin just as fun as dumping it in the first place.

♥

You can see Gracen’s other sensory bins here.

Making Vibrant Dyed Rice

6 / 19 / 129 / 12 / 13

I’ve had dyed rice in my bank of sensory box ideas for a long while now, and since we had a giant bag of Kokuho Rose in our kitchen (the hubby’s favourite… yummy, but white rice) and our dyed pasta turned out pretty well a few days back, I figured we’d give it a go this afternoon. I knew I wanted the colours to be really vibrant, so I decided we’d use gel dyes and something a little more potent than vinegar (hence the jars this time instead of plastic bags). While searching bloggyland, I found that several people suggested using hand sanitizer in place of vinegar or rubbing alcohol. It couldn’t have been more perfect actually. While we didn’t have rubbing alcohol on hand, I did have some yummy-smelling hand sanitizer that’s just been sitting around as I’ve been working on getting my germaphob tendencies under control.

With gel dyes and fruit-scented hand sanitizer involved, I decided I’d get our project started before enlisting the help of Miss G. I collected some jars, put a couple of squeezes of sanitizer in each, and then added gel dye, toothpick and all.

With the sanitizer and dye bottles safely tucked away, I filled a big bowl with rice and invited my little lady to help with the rest of the process.

She was quite thrilled with the giant bowl of rice, so I gave her a few minutes to play with it before getting started on her first job. When good and ready, Grae added about 1 cup of rice to each jar, which turned out to be the perfect amount.

First step complete. I’m just glad you can’t see how much rice is on the floor… Next time I would probably have a wide-mouth funnel on hand just to make the pouring part a little easier / less messy.

With everything inside the jars, I sealed the jars tightly and the shaking began!

Grae and I switched off, giving each of us little breaks and the chance to watch the rice slowly become coloured and more vibrant with time.

Not going to lie… It took quite a lot of shaking. We probably could have stopped earlier, but I wanted the colours to be consistent, so we shook a little more.

This was the end result.

Do you think Grae was happy with the results?

Next, we headed out into the solarium, industrial-sized baking sheet in hand. I poured the rice out, removed the toothpicks, and got rid of a couple of little rice/dye clumps while Gracen oohed, ahhed, pointed, and smelled her newest sensory bin filler.

Just look at those colours! And the perk to using fancy shmancy sanitizer? Deliciously nectarine mint-scented rice (slightly reminiscent of high school nights plagued by cheap, 2 litre coolers, but shhh… Don’t tell Grae.) Now all we have to do is wait patiently enough to let our scented rainbow rice dry!

♥

If youre worried that your little one may put the rice in his/her mouth, try using vinegar instead of hand sanitizer. It should have similar results and will be much safer.