Bean Bag Project

A few weeks ago, Emily and I started making bean bags out of scrap material. This was the first project we did together that went really well start to finish, and I didn’t get so frustrated that I just finished it myself. It was low stress and I didn’t care that each square was absolutely perfect which proved to be a very essential thing. No matter how many tactics I tried, Emily insisted on laying on the fabric while I cut out the rectangles. She was very good about sitting on her chair to avoid the hot iron. When we started sewing the bean bags she sat on my lap and did all the back stitching. The bean bags were the perfect size so that she didn’t loose interest.

Two days later we started filling the bags with black beans. Emily helped put the beans in and eventually took over the entire project, holding the bean bag and paper cone in one hand and pouring the beans in with another. We closed all the openings with Emily back stitching away.

I love having toys for Emily to play with that she helped make. I hope this is something that continues in our home.  She has come up with all sorts of games, from throwing them into bowls to filling cups with them and dumping them out.  Any game is good as long as Andrew and or I are playing with her.

As a side note, she loves sitting in these 88 cent bowls Andrew picked up from Walmart so his GERI students could make play dough. Here she sits with her two “tiny babies” that are an integral part of our life.