DIY: Mermaid/Galactic rice for messy play

I will always be a mum who likes to get stuck right into messy play with Theo, and I am always looking for new, creative ideas to keep him entertained. Juggling a full-time job and also finding time to be a cool, fun mum is not without its challenges, particularly when you’re living through a global pandemic. So, I was incredibly excited when a five-minute experiment whilst making a cuppa in between virtual client meetings turned out brilliantly.

To begin with, I spooned uncooked basmati rice into a clean ice cube tray. Quantity doesn’t really matter – use as much or as little as you like!

I bought this multipack of food colouring from Amazon, it arrived the next day and contains 12 small vials of beautiful, vibrant colours.
You can find this here: https://amzn.to/2MY4olg.

I chose to use the pink (it looks more red here, but it was definitely pink!), teal and violet colours. I placed a few droplets of each colour into random sections and used a cocktail stick to thoroughly mix to ensure the rice was evenly covered.

When all of the rice was evenly covered I tipped the contents of the tray into a large mixing bowl and stirred it all together. The results were gorgeous. Mermaid rice, galactical rice – whatever you want to call it. The colours were just gorgeous. I poured the contents of the mixing bowl onto an ovenproof tray and baked at 200c for just 10 minutes to make sure the rice was completely dry to avoid staining.

I really hope you’ll enjoy creating your very own mermaid/galactical rice, and if you have any creative messy play ideas to share with me, I’d love to hear from you!

Lou x