We are in I don’t even know what number day of staying at home. Here in Los Angeles, California we have been asked to stay home unless we need some fresh air or groceries. So I have been looking at all the random things I have bought over the last couple of months to entertain Hue in between naps and meal time.

I knew I had these wooden people and I bought them with no real plan. I also happened to have food coloring for egg dying in a few short weeks. I decided to do it with Hue before a nap one day last week. He loved dunking these in water. It ended up totally being a full on water sensory play time for him which was great. Once he had all the people in the different water cups I put Hue to bed for his nap. I checked the color after an hour and wasn’t really happy with the vibrancy of the colors. So, I actually read the directions of the food coloring and I realized we needed warmish/hot water. So I refilled all of them with pretty hot water and more drops of food coloring and the color improved to a much more saturated color. Hue is only just a little bit over a year old so he still mouths everything and it was important whatever I stained it with was safe for Hue.

Here are the supplies you will need:

Wooden People

Food Coloring

Cups for holding water

Towel for drying

Here how to do it:

  1. Fill up the containers with the hottest tap water possible. (You could use boiling water but I had plastic cups and was worried about the cups melting so I just used the hottest possible tap water.)
  2. Drop a few drops of food coloring in and make sure the color is evenly mixed with the water.
  3. Add your wooden people in. I let these soak for about an hour in cold water (that was a mistake) and then another hour in hot water.
  4. Take them out of the water and let them dry overnight on a towel.
  5. Let your child play with them!

These are not perfect by any means. The colors on some are pretty uneven but I’m ok with it. It was meant to be a home project to fill up time for Hue and to continue to be a fun project for him to grab when playing. If you wanted a more even tone all around I would use something to weigh down the wooden people.

It’s a really easy project. Not too much work for the adult and a lot of fun for the toddler!