Bean Box

I have had a long term love/hate relationship with sand boxes. We had a large one on the screened in porch in Madison. Luke would spend hours at a time out there. His imagination soared. I got a ton done indoors while he played. I painted the entire kitchen (more than once, I'll admit to being fickle about wall colors) while he played out there. I loved it. What I didn't love was the sand crusted into his sweaty little boy head that never seemed to come out completely. I didn't love the feeling of stepping on sand in my house. I didn't love sweeping constantly but never quite getting all the sand. We tried again with a sand table on the deck in Maryland. Three boys and sand= someone crying with sand in their eyes, especially when one of those boys is under two years old and has a penchant for throwing. I sold the table to my neighbor.

But there was a lingering desire to provide the boys with the tactile, open ended play that sand provides. Then I came across a post on one of my favorite blogs about a bean box. It's perfect, really. Beans are cheap, non-toxic, easy to clean up and really fun to play with (they are also beautiful). We bought an under the bed storage container, some kitchen tools, added various beans and voilá!-- hours of creative fun.

All the kids love it. Ashley and I love it. My favorite activity is sorting the different beans into the ice cube tray. There is lots of measuring, sometimes cars are driven through the beans and Isaac samples a different bean every time we get it out.