Sand Bucket Pendulum

I took one of my daughter's sand buckets and attached about 2 ft of yarn to the bucket's handle.  We had so much fun swinging it back and forth.  I had gotten out a bunch of pasta pieces (Mezzi Rigatoni - they are in the bucket in the picture) and was going to put them on the string, one by one, as a counting game.  She had no interest in that, and it turned out to be too difficult for her, anyway (at least with that low of motivation).  Instead, she put all the pasta into the bucket, and we swung the bucket back and forth with the pasta in it.  We played a few little games with this:

1.  It turns out she is really into dumping, scooping, and pouring right now.  So we would dump the pasta out and then put it back in the bucket.  She saw another little cup, and she put the pasta first into the cup and then poured it into the bucket - it was great for working her motion precision and coordination, even if that wasn't what I initially set out to do. 

2.  I showed her that, when you smoothly swing the bucket all the way up and around - upside down and all - the pasta doesn't fall out!  

3.  We played "bang the bucket."  I attached another string of yarn to another bucket for myself, and I would swing that one while she was swinging hers, and we knocked them against each other.

4.  We also played "kick the bucket."  I'd hold it steady, and she'd kick it.  

So I didn't set out today to work on coordination and motor skills, but we had a ton of fun, and she really did end up learning the concept of the pendulum through extensively interacting with one.   We'll work on counting some other time.