Rice & Beans

We have had several days of crazy warm weather around here. I am loving it even though it freaks me out a little bit. LB is loving it even more. That boy loves to be outside. Yesterday he woke up from his nap and went straight outside and stayed there until dinner. Too bad we don't live in California or Florida or some place that is warm year round. I decided it would be a good day to pull his water table out of the garage and fill it with something a little more appropriate for winter. The last time we went to see LB's OT she had a sensory bin filled with rice and LB spent quite a bit of time playing with it. My friend, Lisa, also recommended using the water table in winter but to fill it with rice. I didn't quite have enough rice so I supplemented with dried kidney beans. It worked really well. LB spent a lot of time moving the rice and beans from one section of the water table to the other. I also pulled out some kitchen utensils and he had fun stirring and scooping. The best part was when I found some of the little toy animals that came with the water table and I hid them in the rice and beans. LB would go searching for them and got really excited when he found them. That game went on for quite some time. Once I had the animal covered LB would exclaim, "hidey!" So cute.

Initially, he spent about 30 minutes playing with it. Then we had to spend some time looking for rocks and sticks and playing with some of our other outdoor toys. Our neighbor got home and LB immediately insisted on showing her the contents inside his water table. He proceeded to play with it again for another 20 minutes or so. So I spent less than $4 for 50 minutes of sensory fun. Success! I am glad we did this activity outdoors because LB spilled a fair amount of the contents outside the water table. I think we would be finding rice all over the house for weeks if we had done it inside. But in a pinch I would do it inside and just put a bunch of towels down with the hopes it would be fairly contained. LB actually spent some time picking up the beans he spilled and put them back in the table.

I am trying to make an effort to take more photos of LB with my actual camera instead of my phone.  I think I got some good ones of him having a little snack break in the grass.