Sandpit play is never boring! An awesome sensory experience, my kids spent hours and hours digging and playing in the sandpit. To be honest, give them half a chance and they’re back in it.
There are many benefits of sand play for children too. They learn about the properties of sand by feeling, digging, patting and shaping, they develop their fine motor skills and it promotes creativity and imagination – just to name a few!
During the years, we’ve either discovered or created some wonderful sandpit play activities and today I’m sharing eight of our favourites with you.
8 Creative Ways to Engage Your Children in Sandpit Play
Digging holes is great fun, but when you need more stimulating sandpit play ideas, take a look through these:
1) A river – if your kids become frustrated when their moats and streams disappear into the sand before their eyes, show them this instead. Dig the trench as normal, and then line it with tinfoil. The water will simply flow down the river and provide hours of entertainment.
2) Cook mud-pies – ah, the old mud-pie experience. Our mud kitchen was such a success that the kids started making sand mud-pies in the sandpit. Add some props like pebbles and dried pasta and create a sand-restaurant.
3) Sand foam – get a bucket and mix sand and shaving foam together to create sand foam. It’s another way to enjoy a foamy experience.
4) Construction zone – pop on a hard hat and florescent vest and become a site manager. Bring out the trucks and tools to create your own city-scape.
5) Create a safari small world in your sandpit – it’s a great way to spark your child’s imagination and encourage independent play. We love this safari small world set up from Little Worlds Big Adventures.
6) Treasure hunt – keep your little explorer busy for hours digging for treasure. Simply hide a few items such as small toys or ‘dinosaur bones’ and give them a treasure map plotting the general location of each treasure.
7) Sand volcanoes – make a volcano shape with the sand then push an old plastic cup into the top. Pop in some baking soda and food colouring then pour in vinegar and watch the explosion!
8) Sandpit engineer – kids love water and sand, so let’s combine the two. As well as water, provide a range of equipment such as pipes, pourers, bowls and turning wheels to test our and build creations with.
Remember that our Coveralls provide the ultimate protection from mud, sand and water for your child’s clothing. Pop over and order them a pair today!
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