Two Cups & a Walnut
by
Barbara Sher 
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Two Cups & a Walnut
Two cups and a walnut is a game that requires nothing more than a couple of paper cups and a walnut or any small hard object (eraser, piece of chalk, peanut, wrapped piece hard candy). Actually, you don’t even have to have paper cups. You could use, for example, two recycled and clean, pint-sized ice cream containers. This way, if people ask you why you are suddenly devouring pints of Ben & Jerry’s Super Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream, you can righteously reply that you are doing it to provide a game for your children (because, after all, that’s the kind of person you are).
Directions
Place the walnut in one cup. Hold a cup in each hand. Give the cup with the walnut a slight upward jerk and the walnut will go up in the air; catch it with the other cup. Keep going back and forth between the cups.
Suggest players start the challenge by keeping the tossing low until they get a sense of how to control the movement of the walnut and how to catch with the empty cup. Then they can experiment with the walnut going higher and higher.
Only have one cup? No problem. Toss the object in the air and catch it with the same container. Again, the higher the toss, the more challenging.
Wanna play together? You take one cup and give her the other and toss it back and forth between the two of you. How far can you stand apart and still catch it?
Benefits
This is an excellent eye-hand coordination game because if they don’t keep their eye on the “ball”, they won’t catch it. The eye directs the hand to get in the right position for catching. Eye-hand coordination.
This is an excerpt from Barbara Sher’s book called: THE COMPLETE BOOK OF FUN AND EASY SOCIAL, MOTOR AND SENSORY GAMES.
Barbara Sher M.A.,O.T.R, an occupational therapist and author of nine books on childrens games. Titles include EARLY INTERVENTION GAMES SPIRIT GAMES and EXTRAORDINARY PLAY WITH ORDINARY THINGS.
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This post originally appeared on our July/August 2012 Magazine
