A Beano Trio

I have an Elem. Education degree and have the certificate and the teaching aids to prove it. And the truth is that I made many of those teaching aids as assingments in one of my classes. Yes, I had to prove I could laminate! Anyway, one such class where I made lots of materials was a math class where the supply list in the syllabus was something like: food coloring, one can spray paint, 1 lb lima beans, 2 bags of pasta- each a different shape... One project that we made with these supplies consisted of spray painting one side of our beans. I think we were in groups of three and one person painted their beans black, one painted theirs red and the other brown. Then we divided these beans up between the three of us so we all had some of each color. Then we took our pound of beans back to our dorm rooms and popped open a new pack of sharpies. We then added details to our one pound of beans- the red became lady bugs, the black penguins, and the brown children. Once these were finished you could use them to teach counting, sorting, graphing, patterns- we were told the world of mathematics could be taught with a ziplock baggie full of lima beans. So today I dug out my beans for my little boy who wanted me to make up a game. I wrote a number on the inside of each cup of an egg carton and asked him to put the right amount of lady bugs in each cup. He didn't get very far but thought maybe we should try the children (the penguins are still MIA). As I was helping him sort I noticed the above trio. Now why would I, an innocent 20 year old future teacher draw a pirate, a beatnik, and a Doobie Brother as teaching aids for elementary school children? And then it came back to me. My future husband, against protest of doing any such crafty education major thing, helped me with these pound-o-beans. I've seen that look of boredom and reluctance often since then (like when I ask him to write copy for my scrapbook pages) but somehow he manages to grit his teeth and make me happy. Is it because of his love for me or is it the chance to sneak in some creative "help" when I'm busy drawing 100 spots on lima bean lady bugs?