Water Beads!

I recently discovered a fun blog, http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/, where I found a lot of really fun ideas for playing with the kids. One of these ideas was water beads (also called "Orbeez") for sensory play. I had never heard of them, but apparently they are used in vases with flower arrangements. They absorb water and are very pretty, but they also feel really cool and are fun to play with. 

This is how they start.

And this is what they end up like after a few hours in water.

We used a whole package with three colors and left them over night in a big tub. The pink beads were already mostly grown, then we threw in the purple and blue. 

They look like marbles, but they feel like peeled grapes (or eyeballs...) and they're so fun to squish! But, if you squish them too hard, they will break.  

This one broke!

These are very fun for kids and adults alike!