SENSORY4U Water Beads Sensory Bin Kits Themed African Safari Animal Set - Great Fine Motor Skills Toy for Kids

As a teacher and a mom with young children, I have used these type of water beads before and was excited when given the opportunity to try these ones! These are pretty sturdy beads, and I love the combo with the toys. My two and a half year old daughter spent a good hour and a half with these a couple days in a row. I love that these are non-toxic, and safe for my kids. They take about 8 hours to get to full capacity, and there are a TON, so I don't really worry about the few that get smashed (2.5 year old, let's be honest). (edited to show picture of safari set) We've had them out for about 3 days and they aren't drying up, they are lasting, they don't smell funny (that's a big deal to me), and my daughter is CONSTANTLY asking to play with them! After this first 'batch' I know I'll be able to make at least 6-7 more 'batches with the beads provided'. All this is definitely worth the price, and it's SO fun! 5 stars!

The rest of the options seem good since they have no little moving parts, but the construction is very fragile and breakable. Had to return and will spend a little more money to not have small pieces that easily come off that create more pieces to lose or cause safety issues.However these would make perfect cake toppers because they are so light and you can use the beads separately as a toy. So I would highly recommend them for that.

OK let me tell you what you wanna make a four-year-old stay get a bag of these things ...Go in the backyard put a giant tarp down Fill up a kitty pool and dump this bag in... they kind of remind me of the strange water crystals that would expand In plant vases. I think it’s the same stuff And they’re very bouncy and they seem to shred and smash easily they leave a huge mess that’s the only downside. But super fun

All I can say is WOW, these tiny little beads are quite surprising. Just add water they swell to several times their original size. Very cool. Just one problem, the zip sealed plastic bag that they were shipped in had burst open in the shipping box. When I opened it & unpacked the paper padding they went all over my kitchen tile floor. What a pain to pick up all the loose beads. They must have been leaking slowly out of the shipping box, I found several rolling around my drive way after a rain the day after the UPS guy dropped off the package. You need to pack & ship them in a better container.

I like water beads and think they are a great sensory experience for kids. So this set looked like a great gift for my construction-Loving son. However the vehicles break extremely easily (extremely cheap plastic) and will likely be all broken within a couple weeks with normal play. I’d recommend water beads and higher quality CAT mini machines instead.

These were so much fun to watch grow in water! It does take time...about 20 mins so it's not a do it now project. I like that there are plenty of beads and that you only need a teaspoon to fill a medium mixing bowl. After the beads expanded we transferred them to a larger bowl for burying the animals. Great sensory experience for kids and adults! Makes hyper kids slow down.

The small bag of beads made a LOT and were super fun to play with. My 2-year old grandson spent a lot of time driving the "tractors" through the beads. Unfortunately the tractors did not stand up to extended play and most got broken fairly quickly. The beads got pretty slimy after 10-14 days and we tried to dry them out so we could re-use them (as suggested on the package) but the drying process was a pain (used cookie sheets sitting outside on the porch) and the dried beads stuck to the cookie sheet. Finally gave up and threw them all away. I would consider these a one-time use activity that was a lot of fun.

Where super fun this little pack makes alot of balls just an fyi. Over all my son loved it I also did until he started to make the balls into mash potatoes then it looks like diaper jelly lol over all it was fun would buy agin