Our City Sandbox

For awhile now, one of Ali's favorite toys has been a colander with cupful of colorful beads. She stirs them, spoons them into little bowls from her kitchen, runs her hands through them and strings them onto pipe cleaners (as that even what they're still called?) She loves them! She could easily get lost playing with those beads for half hour.

Well, the other day, we took her bowl o' beads to the next level. I've been reading up on "city sandboxes" (you know, because we don't have a backyard for a real sand box) and found some pretty cool ideas. Some people use a box of lentils, some use a box of rice, some even go so far as to color the rice. But since I already had a small stash of beads that I knew Ali loved, I just added to that.  I found 2 big bags of beads at Joann Fabrics for about $10 total. Not a bad deal for hours of fun! And, I'm sure, down the road we'll be able to do 101 more projects with them.

One thing to note about our version of the city sand box is that it should only be used under supervision. Small parts + little kids = a must for close monitoring.

Alora was completely engrossed with the task of stringing the beads onto the pipe cleaners that she was actually drooling! She spend about 45 minutes stirring, pouring, stringing, burying, scooping...

Another great thing about the beads is that they are easy to clean up and it's easy to spot the stray beads on the floor. And when it's time to pick up, we put all of her bead box supplies into the box and snap on the lid. Easy peasy!

Toy: This post is part of my photo-a-day challenge. Read more about it here.