I might be among the minority here, but I detest sandboxes. I love for my kids to get to play with them at other people's houses, but cleaning up the mess afterwards is no fun at all.
When our son was little though, our son's therapist had recommended using one of these because our son had a true aversion to anything that felt funny to him. He would really freak out about sand, grass, or anything that would stick to him. The sandbox provided great therapy to help him get over these issues and now he is as dirty and sticky as any other child on earth.
Now that he had grown out of this issue, I was not looking forward to cleaning up sand around our house. We also had not bought any sand yet this year and I was trying to think of a new purpose for the sandbox. That is when I got the brilliant (probably not as brilliant as I think, but it was brilliant to me!) idea to repurpose this into a small baby wading pool.
This is perfect for a smaller child or for making a "water table" for bigger kids.
Sandboxes can be used for a variety of things including a small garden for little ones in the spring or it can be filled with dry ingredients (rice, beans, or popcorn) for big kids to fight boredom during rainy days.
Do you have a sandbox? What have you used yours for?
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those are great ideas. we still use ours as a sandbox, but i will keep those things in mind for a few years down the road.
I had a friend who punched holes in the bottom of hers (to let water drain) and filled it with tiny little landscaping pebbles. It was just as much fun, more sanitary and WAY easier to keep the mess under control.
we are putting pebbles i think in our this year! they aren't interested in the sand anymore!
i found this recipe and i think we might try this: i'm also thinking of changing it weekly or biweekly i'd love to do a small rubbermaid container of gak or oobleck outside to this summer!
http://www.habitot.org/hab/pdf/ArtCalendar2008_01.pdf
Recipe of the Month
Homemade Moon Sand
6 cups play sand (can be found
at home improvement stores)
3 cups cornstarch
1½ cups cold water
1. Mix the water and cornstarch
together thoroughly. This will take
a few minutes to get it nice and
smooth.
2. Gradually mix in the sand, one cup
at a time. You’ll need to really
work it in with your fingers.
3. Play with it! When you’re all
done, pop it in an airtight
container.
4. When you next play with it, you’ll
need to revive it with 2-3 Tbsp. of
water. Just sprinkle it over and
work it in.
some people did add mineral oil or cooking oil for a easy hold its shape molding!