Raise your hand if you are ready for this cold weather to be over so you and your kiddos can get outside. ME! Although, lucky for me we finally had some nice weather here in San Antonio yesterday….60′s and today is supposed to be that nice too! Yay! Sorry, I don’t mean to rub it in…I can see a lot of you raising your hands 
so I’m going to give you all an activity to help with your kiddos stir craziness.
What kid doesn’t like playing in a sandbox? It’s time to bring it inside!
Here is all you need:
- some kind of container, preferably long and shallow (Sterilite bin)
- beans (dry pinto, red, navy, garbanzo, and black beans)
This has become a favorite of my three year old. I started this beanbox for her when she was two. It took some practice to get her to keep the beans inside the box so we usually would put a blanket or sheet under the box for easy cleanup. The beauty of the beanbox is there are a lot of different ways to play with it.
- The classic sandbox toys.
- Hide and seek – I used the magnet letters and numbers off the fridge and would hide them and she would have to find them and call out the letters, numbers, and colors.
- Sort and count the beans.
- Make shakers - use old medicine bottles or the little plastic balls that nylons come in.
- Using a big enough container allowed my daughter to sit in it and cover her feet or hands, which she loved.
Now go get your beans and have some fun!
p.s. Make sure they know the beans are not to eat or stick in their nose (yes, there is a story behind this one)!
Shared this on Mom Tried It, go check out her adorable Cat in The Hat pizzas, so cute.
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This is a great post! I am a play therapist and use sandtray play as a therapeutic tool. Using beans or rice is also a great substitute. If you have older kiddos you can make the box blue to serve as the sky and the water below and add some things they can use to build the scene in the tray.
Thanks Tina! I love the idea of doing a blue box to represent the sky and water to allow them to build a scene. I’ll have to do that sometime!
Great idea. I know both my boys would be in heaven if we did this.
When you were talking about this I was thinking I would have a heck of a time keeping the beans in the box, but now that Hank is three he needs to learn self control…and this would be a great place to start. I love the idea of putting them on a blanket to catch the mess. He would love it.
Your so clever, you.
If you find out how to teach a 3 year old self control I am all ears! Be sure that if our 2 boys were together carnage would ensue… but in a good way of course… our 2 wee ones could just watch in awe!
That is very cute. It is awesome for sensory play, too.
Destri, I love the quote in your comment. Thanks for sharing that with me.
Fun idea, I did this for one of those church Halloween parties and we put ring spiders and things like that in it. Kids love this kind of stuff. Great post.
Way to go on using that food storage!
Hey I figure if I need it in the future, I can always wash it and use it!
No need to just let it sit there!
I love the idea but fear that we would be off to the ED again with beans in places that no bean should ever see. We have ‘hidden’ things in a pile of shaving foam. It was in the garden in the summer on top of an old shower curtain, the plastic bit! Wee man too wee then, but have tucked the idea away as a winner… along with this one… when things stop going in mouths…..! Love it.
Smiles :O)
This reminds me of the rice table in Kindergarden.
I would love for you to come link this and any other boy crafts to my What are little boys made of? Weekly Round-Up. It happens every Thursday at seven thirty three – - – a creative blog
I love these kind of toys. My daughter likes to get wild the second my back is turned when we play with these.
Oh, I like the idea of using beans. It seems like it would be a bit easier to clean up than things like sand or rice. I really need to put one of these boxes together. We have a very long winter season here and I’m always looking for things to keep the kids entertained.
We finally have spring, though today we are in the middle of a late snowstorm. Check out my blog, I wrote about it this morning.
Awesome idea but my toddlers would have the box tipped and all over the floor in no time. We could use it ouside though, maybe in a blown up pool with no water.