I saw this idea on a craft website months ago, and last weakened finally had a chance to create it. Apparently it’s really good for kids’ creativity, imagination, and general development so I figured they might enjoy it.

All you need is a few different bags of dry beans – red kidney, white, black, etc. or just an assorted bag of all. Place the beans in a large plastic container that has a lid. Then add a plastic scoop and whatever else you want. I stopped by the dollar store and picked up a few packs of little rubber animals, red rocks, and 2 plastic trucks.

They had a blast and asked to play with their “bean boxes” every single day last week. They’ve buried and unburied their choo-choo trains a hundred different times and they loved digging and un-digging the little animals. Cost of craft, about 10 dollars per box.