Colored Rice

The toddler's new favorite thing: playing with her colored rice.

I had been wanting to try this for a while, and needing a new project for the toddler, we dyed some rice. I actually used brown rice (because that's what we had), but it turned out fine! I used two snack-sized ziploc bags and put a couple of handfuls of rice in each one. Then, I added about half of a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag.

The fun part: We added several drops of food coloring to each bag. In one bag, we did red on one end and blue on the other end. In the other bag, we added green and yellow. Then we each took a bag and shook it for about a minute. The toddler loved this part!

When the color had been distributed well, I emptied the rice onto a plate and placed it out in the sun for about an hour.

Since then, the toddler has played with her rice for about 45 minutes per day! I empty it out into a tray and give her a few small dixie cups and a spoon, and she is perfectly content!

I am sure we will be doing this a lot more over the next couple of years!