Hooray for this blog post by my Shop @ The Learning Basket partner, Sanne!
Her tips on making your own sandbox are practical and very doable!
~
The dream to build a sandbox for the Little
Energizer Bunny began on her first trip to the beach at age one. It was a pleasant surprise to see her
enjoying the cool, white sand. The
serious hunt for a sandbox, however,
began a few months ago after our fun play date with Little T and Baby Boy.
What You Need
1. A bin – Any closed bin would
do, just keep in mind how many kids you have and what types of activities they
enjoy. I found this bin and knew I had a
winner.
It is big enough for two kids to play together and portable enough
to bring to lolo and lola's house. It
has a cover, making clean-up as easy as 1-2-3.
If you have bigger kids who actually want to be IN the sandbox, I saw a
similar bin used by panaderos (bakers) to transport their pastries that would be perfect
for that kind of play.
2. Sand (of course!) - We bought
ours at a local garden shop for P25/ki.
For this kind of bin, you need at least three kilos of sand.
And,
as the Little Energizer Bunny would say, that's it!
It is no surprise that sand is almost
always present in schools and playgrounds.
There are tons of things you can do with your sand bin!
1. Creative sensorial play – I am
constantly amazed at what the Little Energizer Bunny comes up with when I just
let her be during playtime. The first
time she played with her sandbox, she just asked for a plastic spoon and dug
and moulded her heart away for about an hour! While playing, I also introduced
the concept of textures and talked about the sand being rough, and the spoon
being smooth.
2. I Spy – I hide an object and
let my child dig for it. This is good
for object permanence and gross motor skills.
I put it up a notch higher by hiding plastic/foam letters and numbers
for letter and number recognition, a pre-reading and pre-math skill. We also use our sand box like a magic slate
as we practiced writing lines and letters and drawing shapes.
3.
Dramatic/Pretend play – We act
out stories that we have read before for better comprehension. We made tracks with a twig like Peter in “TheSnowy Day” and put “sand on my hand” like Jesse Bear (“Jesse Bear, What WillYou Wear?). The favorite, though, is
cooking “sinigang” (sour soup) sand for mommy and daddy.
With a covered bin, cleaning up is as easy
as, well, covering the bin. You can
even let your child help pack away, a good practical skill. And if you have a child like mine who's a
“toy butterfly”, you can just chuck the sand for another time and fill up your
bin with another fun sensory material (homemade slime, anyone?).
Have fun!
sanne
3 comments:
Yipeee! More inspired for our sandbox now! :D Hurray!
hi Rheea! i would check food service companies such as Alatone (http://alatoneplastics.com/product_detail.asp?cat=MULTI+PURPOSE+CRATES&product_id=81). the one i saw was big enough for maybe 2 toddlers. i don't think they have covers though.
we just soaked the sand a bit to make it easier to mold and let it dry out in the sun. you probably need a huge makeshift screen/strainer to remove the water if you want the sand really wet.
Oh, I was just thinking about this! I wanted a flat plastic storage box so they could be in it (my kids, I mean) but the ones I've seen are too short. I haven't seen the panaderos' bins. How big are those, and would you know where to get them? And another question--how do you drain the water (if you allow water to be added to your sand--better for sandcastles!)?
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