play with your food (ingenious way to use beans or pasta)
isaac and i recently started a parent-child program at our local waldorf school. isaac's favorite part (well, besides making bread which we eat at snack time) is playing in the bean box. he loves it so much that i made our very own bean box at home. i simply filled a shoebox with one bag of dried black beans and one bag of dried kidney beans, and voila! you can do the same with pasta. or rice, though small stuff like rice, lentils, etc. make clean up a lot harder.
i'd forgotten about this great, totally absorbing, totally cheap and all natural toy from my child development/education days. i'll let my friends at eensies cover the broader educational benefits. for here, i thought that the ingenious use of food would be interesting. though there is more to it than that--there's a real food/education/child development opportunity here. young children learn best by engaging all of their senses, which is why i often let isaac touch, smell, taste (when appropriate), and even listen to ingredients as i prepare a meal. playing in the bean box provides a unique opportunity for kids to get a new sensory perspective on food ingredients.
isaac is totally obsessed with his bean box. he's been waking up from nap time saying, "BEANS!" hope your little ones enjoy this as much as he does.
-S
