Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Mexican Jumping Beans

Every time he goes on a business trip, Adam gets Sam a little gift.  He's made a tradition out of keychains because they have city-specific keychains in every airport in America, apparently.  Sam has quite a nice collection.

But sometimes Adam gets her an additional item, and Louisville, Kentucky brought Sam some Mexican jumping beans.

I don't know that I'd ever seen real Mexican jumping beans before.  They really do jump and Sam loves them.  Besides the novelty of it, I think this is a great gift for preschoolers because if you want them to jump in your hand, you have to hold very still.  The larva inside the bean jumps to get away from heat, so normally you keep them in the fridge.  When you take them out, you can hold them in your hand to heat them up and make them start jumping.  But if you move around too much, they don't jump.  It's a nice way to practice being still.

They also do require a tiny bit of care, so if your child is begging for a pet, maybe this is a good first step.

2 comments:

  1. I had some of those as a kid! They really are interesting.

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  2. What an unlikely place to find Mexican jumping beans! We saw them in some mercardos in Mexico but thought they were outlawed in the US because they were poisonous if eaten. Maybe I was remembering the wrong kind of bean--maybe it was the castor bean. I remember them being around and being fascinated by them as a child but never knew much about why they jumped and how to care for them.

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