The baby peas were fresh and sweet, but their fava was a has-bean

To finish up our series on beans in our Montessori-inspired playgroup, we created art with them.  I laid out paper, small bottles of school glue, paint brushes and a huge variety of beans.  Yes, it created as much mess as you think it did.  Yes, beans were tossed everywhere.  But such is the way of bean mosaics.

I liked it because it was another one of those projects that really gave the children freedom of creation.  I had originally thought to have pictures for them to fill in, or create designs with the glue, but I just didn’t think that would work for my own.  But as each mother worked with their child, they had the option of doing that, and I liked that freedom for all of us, for being able to choose how you and your child worked together.  My mini-ions were happy to glue, spread and sprinkle indiscriminately, and Mini-ion #1 told me he created a monster.  I’m not sure if anyone knows what Mini-ion #2 made, but she really enjoyed making it.

The children were able to leave and come back if they wanted to.  They could put as much or as little as they wanted to.  Some took up the majority of the paper, others started going more 3-dimensional in their bean mosaic.  And, once most of the children had spent as much time as they wanted, the inevitable bean playing happened.  Mini-ion #2 took cups of it and was feeding the rocking horse and then dumped it on the ground to see how quickly I would scramble to her.  *sigh*  Why is it always my mini-ions that are making the biggest mess and running around screaming?