Colored Rice for Sensory Play

So I have a ton of projects on my Pintrest page that I really need motivation to do.  A couple of months ago, I decided that if I made sure to post the projects on my blog, then I would probably actually do them.  Turns out, the problem is not doing the projects, but doing the posting.  Didn't work out so well.  But I did do one project.  I made colored rice for Baby Cakes to play with.  The idea came from the Share & Remember blog.  She makes the rice with something called liquid watercolors, which I have never heard of, and are (apparently) really expensive.  Thankfully in the comments, someone posted how they did it with food coloring, so that's what I did.  Here is what I got:

So pretty!  It was really easy to make (a priority for me) and I did it in just an hour or so.  And Baby Cakes loves it.

The first time I gave the box to her, I went downstairs to do something and got sucked in.  All of a sudden I realized 30 minutes had passed and I hadn't heard a peep from her (she's 2, so that's pretty rare).  I went back upstairs and she was sitting in the box and there was rice everywhere.  She was in heaven.  She doesn't play with it for that long anymore, but she does ask to play with it at least a couple times a week.  And with how easy it is to make, I just vacuum up what she spills and make more when it gets low.  If you make enough you could even hide small plastic toys in the rice for them to find.  I'm planning on doing that the next time I need to add some.

Anyway, here is how I do it:

Colored Rice
1 cup rice per color
food coloring
sandwich bags or bowl for mixing
1 tsp rubbing alcohol or vinegar (I used rubbing alcohol.  I don't know how well the vinegar would work, but someone on the comments page on the original blog suggested it.  Also, add more if you think it needs it.  But I only used 3 tablespoons per 8 cups of rice when I made some for a large rice table for my church nursery.)  (And now back to your regular scheduled programming.)

Put rice in the baggie or bowl.  Add rubbing alcohol or vinegar to the rice, then 8 - 10 drops of food coloring.  Mix everything together really well.  Pour onto a cookie sheet with sides or a jelly roll pan and dry in a 250 degree oven for 10 minutes.

And that's it!  Enjoy having occupied children (at least for a little while)!