Cole and his Beans

I've tried to explain to a couple of people Cole and his beans - so I thought that this picture would serve the best in explaining.


Cole fell in love with playing in beans when, for his language development, the counselor had him search for animals in beans. We bought Cole his own beans and little animals so that we could continue to work with Cole on our own. Little did we know how the beans would become one of his favorite toys!

At first the beans were simply in a shoe box sized plastic container, but, inevitably since we are talking about a boy, the beans got scattered all over the floor. We then let Cole play with his beans on a plastic drop cloth. He then moved from playing with the animals and began bringing in his trucks to haul the beans around - this than created a larger scattering of the beans. So, the next idea was to use a little $5.00 pool that I bought for the kids while in Utah last summer. This has been perfect! (Sorry cousins in Utah that we had grandma and grandpa bring it to Arizona, we heard how much fun everyone was having with it at the Fourth of July and 24th of July get togethers . . . if it makes any one feel any better, their is a small hole in it!)

Cole, and now Parker, ask at least once a week to play in the beans (or as Cole calls them "my beans). They have all kinds of fun plowing, hauling, dumping, and generally pushing the beans around. Many times Andrew even gets sucked into the fun and tries to get the boys to build roads! We still get beans on the floor, but they are an easy clean up with a broom. We also joke about this being our food storage if needed! I guess that for now this beats sand!

(Disclaimer: if any of this sounds spacey, I am starting down with a second cold . . . I just had one last week!!! This is ridiculous!)