Who Needs a Sand Box When You Can Have a Rice Box?

Today we have a guest "indoor activity" post written by the editor of Local Fun for Kids, a new website that is helping bring more attention to locally run parenting sites across the country, including Go West Young Mom. The blog has lots of recipes, crafts and more fun ideas, too, so make sure to add it to your bookmarks. -- Tara

Photo courtesy of Local Fun for Kids.My little guys love playing outside, and one of my 3-year-old son’s favorite activities is playing in the dirt with his trucks. As soon as spring rolls around, he will be out there again digging for hours and covered in dirt and mud. As long as he's happy, that's fine with me.

He recently got a Caterpillar remote control digger for his birthday.  But, how much fun is a digger, if you can't dig?  So, I pulled out a medium-sized storage container, and put some green felt on the bottom, which makes it a better surface to drive the digger. I then poured in the some blue and green rice, which was dyed with food coloring a few days earlier.  If you’ve never colored rice before, you can find an easy how to guide here.

This little ‘rice box’ was such a hit!

If you have a girl who is digger-less, you could still use this idea but make it a beach for Barbie.  But, you don't really need a theme at all. You can just use some cups and spoons and let your child play in with the rice like they would with sand.

This is such a great indoor alternative to outdoor digging. Plus, it's heck of a lot cleaner that an indoor sand-box. Will you get grains of rice out of the 'rice box'? Yes. But it is so worth it. My kids have already spent hours playing with this.

It would also be a great activity for a breastfeeding mama who needs to entertain her little one while she's nursing.  You could save the 'rice box' as a special treat that your little one can only use when you're nursing the baby.  Try it!

This is such an inexpensive & easy indoor activity for kids.