The main thing I wanted Izzy to get out of this activity was the skills of pouring and scooping, so in addition to his bowl full of ghost beans, I added a smaller bowl, a spoon, and a plastic cup. As soon as he saw the setup, he knew exactly what to do. He poured and scooped those beans in every way possible, and although all of the beans eventually did end up on the floor, he poured and scooped to his hearts content for a full 20 minutes. After all the beans were on the floor, it was a good fine motor exercise for him to try and pick them up off the floor and put them back in the bowls or cup. We did try using the different faces on the beans to match/sort them, but that concept is a little advanced for him and he just wanted to experiment and see if he could get the beans to stick to the fridge like magnets which, of course, he couldn't.
Skills learned: Scooping, pouring, fine motor skills. You could also set it up to teach matching, sorting, and/or counting.
Age: 18m+
Rating (out of 4 stars): 3