Bean Play

An activity that has gone over really well with Sophie is playing with beans.  We had played with rice before, but she didn't seem too interested in it.  It also was a bit of a mess to clean up as the rice is so small and a bit of work to get all the pieces up.  I decided to try some beans!  An added plus to beans is they are naturally gluten-free, like the rice, so there were no worries about Sophie playing with them! 

The first time Sophie played with them, she played for about 2 hours!  I did have to watch her as she was putting a couple in her mouth.  To play, I laid out a blanket since we have hardwood floors.  Then I put the beans into 3 different sized containers for her to scoop them and put them in the others.  I started with some larger measuring cups (as shown in the pictures), but soon realized they weren't very effective for her so I downgraded to a tablespoon and a 1/4 cup.  They were perfect.  Some things we worked with were scooping the beans (which prepares her for scooping her food to eat), pouring it into the containers (which work on her hand coordination to aim it), pouring from measuring cup to measuring cup (which was REALLY hard for her at first, but she's gotten so much better since), and just playing with her hands in it to try to get her out of being scared to get her hands dirty (even though this did not make them dirty in the least bit).  Here's a couple of pictures of her fun:

All in all, it is still a go-to activity that she continues to improve her fine motor skills in.  While it does require me to keep an eye on her because of the small pieces, I can at least do something separate while sitting next to her without having to entertain her completely.  Also, it's much easier to clean up than the rice.  It's a winner for us!