15 Awesome Summer Activities for Preschoolers

Have you tried water beads with your preschooler yet? They’re perfect for kids who love tactile exploration. They’re actually floral beads meant to fill up vases, but they’re perfect added to a water bin, so long as your child is old enough to know not to eat them or inset them into their nose or ears (water beads send thousands of children to the emergency room every year). The Imagination Tree explains the simple process of making a sensory bin with water beads. (Just keep them out of your drains!) 

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission set a new safety rule for water beads in March 2026. Water beads can cause life-threatening situations if swallowed and the new rule limits water beads that are marketed as toys from expanding beyond 5 millimeters (about the size of a pea). You can read more about the safety changes here.