I have seen loads of activities with dyed base fillers in activity trays, but never done it myself. Now, after seeing how easy it is, I will be no doubt dying everything! To dye the rice you need:
* rice
* food colouring
* ziplock bag
* vinegar
Simply chuck the rice into the ziplock, add a capful of vinegar, and a generous glug of food colouring. Seal up the bag, and shake it until the colouring is spread evenly over the rice. If you find the color is too light, simply add more in. This took hardly any time at all, and I was surprised how well the rice took the color. Then, spread the
rice out to dry. I had a blue and a red batch, so spread one out in our tray and the other on a baking tray. I left them overnight, and by morning they were totally dry.
I was home first on Monday, so I decided to set this up for when Isabelle arrived. I stuck with a red and blue theme by adding in red and blue tools on the alternating side, and adding in some of our coloured lollipop sticks as well. Isabelle arrived home and, as soon as she saw this, said "Ohhhh! See? Sand!" She thought that the tray was full of sand, but I explained it was rice, so she spent the next 5 minutes shouting "Rice! Rice!" instead. She immediately got stuck in and, as predicted, began to scoop. I don't have any red and blue tins, so out came the muffin tin again, and she enjoyed transferring the rice to it. Any time she dropped rice she made a big thing of swiping it with her hand to 'tidy up'.
Sadly, another this I have noticed over the last few activities is that Isabelle is not at her best in the early evening on the days she is with her grandparents. They are too exciting, so she comes home totally exhausted, and that has meant she hasn't taken to her activities as well as I know she would if she weren't so tired. So, after around 10 minutes with this, she was done. She wanted a mommy cuddle, and although she poked at the rice a few more times, that was it.
Thankfully, the rice stores really easily, so it's in a ziplock for another day when she isn't so tired. I did ask Simon to separate the red and blue grains for me....he declined...
It does leave me in a dilemma, too. I don't want to push Isabelle when she is too tired, but she spends 4 days a week with her grandparents at the minute so it will be a bit hit and miss from now on as to whether or not we get to do any of our activities. We will play it by ear, and judge each day as it comes.