egg carton mancala with a twist

The basic part of this has been done before, but that doesn't mean it isn't great!
What you need:

• egg carton
• two small bowls (lids from yogurt/sour cream containers work well)
• small stones, beans, dried pasta, marbles (you will need 36 or 48, depending how many you want to play with)

1. Cut off the lid. Painting the egg carton is optional.
2. Get two small bowls to put at each end to collect your stones.
3. Play! If you don't know, here are some instructions.

egg carton mancala with white beans

While this is fun, there is another variation which we think is even more fun!
1. Cut off the lid. Painting the egg carton is optional.
2. Find:

• some string
• a magnet that can be attached to the string (or two strings and two magnets if you don't want to share) and
• 36 or 48 small items you can pick up with a magnet (paper clips, washers, etc.).

3. Attach the magnet to the string:

4. Play mancala as normal, but use your magnet/string to "fish" out the pieces!

If you have one of those puzzles with a fishing wand, that makes this even easier:

magnetic fishing mancala with paper clips

If your kids are too young to understand how to play mancala, they will still have fun fishing!