What can you do with bean bags?

Beanbags stimulate the imagination and get children moving. Once you give a beanbag to a child, it transforms into anything they can imagine. Throwing games, balancing, sorting by color, stacking, beds for dolls, a road for cars. The only limit is their imagination.

Since we got the bean bags, my children play with them every day. They use them for everything.

This is one of those messages I get daily. Kids love these play bags. These play bags are a must-have for any play day.

Why are bean bags fun toys?

• Bean bags stimulate the senses;
• Stimulate creativity and independent thinking;
• Calms children;
• Good for balance and motor skills;
• Supports learning through play.

10 Sensory Bean Bag Play Ideas:

1. Throwing games

Passing, throwing in a basket, throwing over a line. Or throwing in a direction. Left, right, up, or down. A fun game to playfully learn the difference between left/right and up/down.

Also suitable for indoor use. A ball bounces, but beanbags don't.

2. Gym games with bean bags

Want to get moving on a drizzly day? Have a "gym" together with bean bags. Toss them into a hoop. Zigzag between the bean bags. Jump over the bean bags. Jump on top of the bean bags. These play bags will get you moving. You can read more examples in my blog post about active indoor games .

3. Balancing

A fun game for toddlers and preschoolers. Place the play bags on your head and walk around the room with them. Or, for an even more challenging challenge, complete an obstacle course. Older children can balance them on their hands or feet.

4. Learning colors with beanbags

The rainbow beanbags are perfect for color recognition. Combine them with other colorful toys to help children sort by color. Does your child need a more challenging color recognition experience? Then choose the pastel beanbags . With these beanbag sets together, a child can learn, for example, that there is light blue and dark blue.

5. Building towers

Build towers with beanbags. Stacking beanbags requires a different skill than stacking wooden blocks. It's good for developing motor skills and balance.

6. Sensory play with bean bags

Each beanbag feels different or is filled with a different material. This stimulates the senses and calms children. By touching sensory toys , worrying stops and a child can process the day's stimuli.

7. Pretend play

A bed for the animals, a chair for the stuffed animal, a cake for the play kitchen, or a highway for the wooden cars. Children can imagine all sorts of things with these beanbags. They're open-ended toys that can transform into anything.

8. The floor is lava!

A favorite in our house. The floor is lava, so your feet shouldn't touch the ground. Use furniture and other toys to get from one side of the room to the other. The beanbags make great stepping stones!

9. Number and letter recognition

Learning through play is incredibly powerful. And bean bags are a great way to do that. Lay out a few numbers or letters and ask your child to place the bean bag on the correct letter or number. This will stick better than reciting the alphabet.

10. Learning to count with beanbags

Play math games together with beanbags. Place two beanbags down and ask your child to remove one. How many are left? Adjust the difficulty level to your child's knowledge.

Toys that grow with your child

The magic of these sensory beanbags is that they grow with your child's development and interests. The toys themselves remain the same. Only the play styles change.

• A baby will mainly feel the play bags and lift them up.
• A toddler loves to put the bean bags in something and then take them out again.
• Toddlers love throwing and balancing games. And it encourages playful learning of colors.
• Preschoolers play even more games with the beanbags, but there's also some role-playing involved. Beds for the animals, stepping stones to walk on, cakes for the play kitchen.
• Children over the age of 4 use beanbags to learn to count, recognize colors, "the floor is lava," during gym class, and for endless throwing games.

That's the power of these imaginative beanbags. The possibilities are endless, and they won't end up in the attic after a few weeks.