Adventures in water beads

After seeing numerous posts from mom bloggers going on about these wonderful things called water beads and how much their kids love them, I decided to buy some from Michaels for $5.  For the record, these are little grape-like beads one purchases in the floral section of a craft store.  They have a texture like a wet grape, with a cool tactical quality that my boys like. If you soak them in water, they expand to the size of a large marble.  Very cool!

If you do a google search, you can find a gazillion ideas for what to do with water beads.  You can paint with them, fill a bin with shaving cream and put some beads in and play with them that way or put them on a lighted table. My boys love taking the bin and sorting their favorite colors out.  But, so far, I will say that I am NOT on Team Water Bead.  Why?

1.  Not 10 minutes out of the box, Noah ate a water bead.  Oh, it's not a day around here if I don't call poison control.  For the record, water beads are non-toxic. The nice lady at poison control said the worst that might happen is that he'd have a tummy ache.  He was fine.  Anyway, they are kind of "gummy" like, so I totally get why Noah did this, but still.

2.  My boys love to tear apart the poor water beads, making a big gummy mess.

Anyway, a lot of people love water beads and if you are looking for a fun inexpensive activity for your kids in a controlled environment where you can make sure they won't ingest them, I say go for it!  Someday soon I will try painting with them, but until then I will send my boys back to the sandbox for their sensory fun.