Fun with Beans

In my last post I rambled on and on about my son's first birthday.  One thing that I did briefly mention was the gift that Jason and I got for him - the sand and water table.  When we bought it, we knew that it wouldn't actually get used for sand and water until the summer, but we definitely wanted to put it to use.  Thanks to the amazing blog, Play at Home Mom, I got the idea to use it for sensory play with Redmond.  Let him feel/touch/explore different things.  While grocery shopping this morning, I saw that dried beans were on sale.  Perfect!


"Can I play?"

 

"Hmmm....I've never felt something like this before!"

  

"I wonder what happens if I put a bean in here?"

 

"I can shovel them too!"



"So many beans!"


I think Redmond really enjoyed this playtime.  Of course, his attention span didn't stick with it for too long, but we went back to the beans a few times throughout the day.  I think the next time we play with them I'll stick the beans in the freezer before dumping them in the bin. 

I look forward to letting Redmond explore more things - but I really need suggestions of items to use.  The only other thing I have come up with so far is rice and different pasta shapes.  I would LOVE some suggestions and ideas!