Rice and Beans on a Rainy Day

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Today I’d like to share with you two ideas for rainy (or snowy) day activities that your children might enjoy. The first is something our grandchildren enjoy. The second is something that my children enjoyed first and now our grandchildren are enjoying it all over again.

This has got to be the all-time easiest indoor activity to set up. It’s simply a miniature indoor “sandbox” that is filled with rice instead of sand. The directions are simple.

Pour rice into a large bowl or plastic tub. Throw in some small toys, some toy forks and spoons, and a measuring cup or other object suitable for pouring and your preparation is done. Now it’s time to watch your child’s imagination.

Now, I did say this is an indoor activity. Several of our grandchildren have played with rice inside our house; and yes, we do get rice on the floor. That’s okay at Notty and Little’s house; but if that’s not okay on a particular day, this can be an outdoor or inside-the-garage activity, too.

When we had our indoor fall festival a few weeks ago, I pulled out our old tic-tac-toe game from the toy closet. When I say old, I mean it. This game is about twenty-five years old and still as solid as the day I made it. Now a second generation of Notgrass kids can play tic-tac-toe the large motor way.

Children of any age and adults can play tic-tac-toe this way. If children are too young to follow the rules, they can just have fun throwing the bean bag markers and trying to hit the board.

The board is approximately thirty-six inches square. It is basically a nine-patch quilt made with 12 inch squares. You can use any color, but I chose a red, white, and blue theme. Sandwiched between the fabric back and the top that you see in the picture are a solid piece of thin batting and nine 11 x 11 inch squares of plastic canvas. I simply placed a square of plastic canvas beneath each of the nine-patch squares before I machine quilted along the seam line where the blue fabric and red striped fabric come together.

It would probably be okay not to include the plastic canvas, but it does help the game board lie nicely on the floor. Having plastic canvas inside makes the game fold easily into a twelve-inch square, even with the ten bean bags folded up inside.

Five of the ten bean bags are solid red on the back and the other five are blue. On the fronts, five are polka dots and five are striped. Inside the bean bags are the same beans I put inside more than 25 years ago when I made these for John, Bethany, and Mary Evelyn. These are super-easy to make. Cut two squares about 4 by 4 inches or so. Sew three sides. Fill loosely with beans. Fold over the open edge and machine stitch shut.

I just had “duh slap” (You know what a duh-slap statement is, don’t you? It’s when you make an obvious statement followed by a “duh” and a palm slap to the forehead). You could make a temporary tic-tac-toe game board simply by taping squares of paper together and then taping that to the floor (if it wouldn’t hurt your floor) That won’t last twenty-five years, but hey, it’s an idea!

I am thankful that your children have time to play — and the peace and freedom to do so, as well.

There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven . . .
Ecclesiastes 3:1

. . .  even a time for play.

I am also  thankful to live in country where we have such abundant supplies of food that we can even play with it. I grew up in a home where Daddy always said a blessing before we had a meal. Still, I’m not sure I had ever fully realized what a tremendous blessing it was that God gave me food, until I became a mother. I remember a moment as a young mother when I was struck by the fact that God gave me food to feed my little baby boy. He is amazing.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man,
So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
And wine which makes man’s heart glad,
So that he may make his face glisten with oil,
And food which sustains man’s heart.
Psalm 104:14

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