How to dye vegetables to play with children

In this tutorial we are going to teach you how to dye legumes, we can do various activities with them, such as making paintings or decorating empty containers, if the children are older than 3-4 years old. For children under 3 years old, all of these activities are very beneficial for the development of their fine motor skills.

For younger children there are many activities that can be done, such as playing to sort by colors or by quantities, transfer the chickpeas from one container to another, make a shower of chickpeas (they love it !!), or simply put them in a small pool or plastic box to get and play with the chickpeas at your free will, follow the tutorial and you will know how to dye legumes.

Materials

•  Chickpeas or other legumes of your choice.
•  Food coloring.
•  Plastic bags, (I recommend the large Ziplock Bags).
•  A container where you can put the vegetables to dry.
•  Kitchen paper, napkins, or newspaper.
•  A container for the vegetables already colored.

Procedure for dyeing legumes

First we must decide what type of legumes we want to dye. Ideally, they should be light-colored legumes, in order to obtain a better final result.

After we have chosen the legumes (I have opted for chickpeas since it was what we had at home), we separate the quantities that we want to dye. In order to better enjoy the different games or activities that can be done with the dyed legumes, it is best choose several different colors. Once we have chosen the colors and quantities, we will begin to dye vegetables, what we will do is the following:

In a large bag we put the chickpeas and add the coloring, the coloring must be in paste, liquid or gel, and it is recommended that it be food since we avoid poisoning risks In young children, we can also use acrylic paints of strong colors if we know with certainty that there is no risk of ingestion by children or people who are going to use chickpeas.

Once we have the chickpeas and the colorant in the bag, we close it and proceed to mix it well until we see that the chickpeas are completely colored, we can open the bag and add more colorant if necessary.

When we complete this step, we have to put the colored chickpeas to dry, in a flat container we put absorbent paper and place the chickpeas to dry, we can put them in the air or near a heat source to speed up the drying processThe chickpeas will be dry when we take them between our hands and when rubbing them they do not give off colorant or what comes off is minimal.

Once they are dry we can use them to play or do crafts. They usually last several months, if they do not get wet and are kept in a dry place, it is advisable to use a tupperware or container with a lid to preserve them better.

And you already know how to dye legumes, I hope you liked this tutorial and that you put it into practice, since it is something very easy, cheap and fun to do.

Tell me what you think and if you have done it !!