I was all excited about Works-For-Me Wednesday this week, because I actually had an idea! An honest-to-goodness idea! I hadn't put it into practice yet, but surely it would work - it would be great!My idea? An indoor sandbox for Wendy. No, I'm not crazy enough to bring actual sand into the house; I can just imagine it sifting down into our deep-pile carpet... *shudder*
I bought a medium-sized plastic tote, about twice the size of a shoebox. It has a lid that snaps on securely, which is essential if you're going to do this. Then I bought a 10 lb bag of white rice at the grocery store, and dumped it into the tote. (Are you taking notes? Because this is complicated.) I grabbed a funnel and some toy kitchen tools, plopped them into the rice, and let Wendy play! She had a great time, and I got some peace and quiet in which to cook dinner!
For about $7, we now have a nice indoor "sandbox." If the rice spills, Wendy can just sweep it up & dump it back into the box!
Caveat:
If you do this, please, for the love of your vacuum cleaner, do not leave your child unattended until it has been drilled into her head to not dump the entire 10 lb of rice onto the floor because it will make Mommy's head explode. I'm sure you're more intelligent than I am, and so you would never encounter this situation. You wouldn't turn your back on a child who is playing with bazillions of tiny pieces of rice. Good for you. Your vacuum will have a longer lifespan than mine.
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7 comments:
We had one like that when my kids were small also.
What a great idea!
I've seen so many moms do this and I think it looks great. I'm just not so sure I could pick up the fallen grains faster than my baby could crawl over to them. Might have to wait a little bit!!
We've done the same thing with beans and dried pasta!
We did this with pinto beans. DS loves to bury his little cars in it. Very cute. I just have him sit on the floor of whatever room I'm going to be in so that I can watch him.
I've also heard of people doing it with oats, and I think that I tried it once with Cheerios. :)
Rice tables are amazing for children's sensory learning!! If you want to make it new and exciting in a couple weeks, fill a couple ziplock baggies with rice, and put a few drops of food coloring in the bag and shake. Place on newspaper or something to dry then add back in with the white rice.
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