On my daughter's first day of school the kids were sitting at the breakfast table.  Usually they pester each other and it can be my most hectic and stressful time of the day, but that day Little Buddy (2.5 years old) reached out his hand to his sister (4 years old) and said, "Don't leave.  I'm going to miss you today while you're at school."

He almost had tears in his eyes and was visibly upset.  His sweet sister reached across the table, grabbed his hand and said, "Don't worry, Little Buddy.  I don't have to leave right away.  I can still play with you for a few minutes."  They sat there holding hands for a few minutes and I thought my heart would break.

Then I realized the full reality of this situation.  Poor little Buddy really was going to miss his sister.  A lot.  He'd gotten used to have her around for the summer months.  They do fight a lot, but they play together too.  I decided to try to come up with a few games that he alone would really enjoy.  True boy stuff since he so often gets stuck playing dress-up with princess costumes.  I came up with a bean ramp.

It was very simple, very cheap, and very easy.  My kind of project!  I just got out our sensory bin, which has beans and old pasta.  Then I taped an old wrapping paper tube to a chair and underneath this, I put a cookie pan.  I originally tried this with multiple paper towel holders taped together, but the beans kept getting stuck in there and frustrating Little Buddy, so I was happy to find this wrapping paper holder, which worked much better.

The cookie pan at the bottom was key.  He simply took out beans, pasta, etc., and put it in the tube.  It flew down and made a loud, "PING" noise when it landed in the cookie pan.  The noise was definitely his favorite part and it also contained the mess.  He really enjoyed this and even got out his cars and tried to run them down the ramp.  Of course, he was still sad about his sister being gone, but at least he got try something new.

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