A Sand and Water Table - Great Fun for Kids

Water and sand are both highly educational play experiences for children (though you don't have to tell them that!).

Water play teaches many kids of movement and co-ordination - for instance, hand-eye co-ordination when pouring from one container to another, as well as developing hand and arm muscles. Children also learn a great deal about how liquids behave - pouring, squirting, leaking - and how objects in liquids can float and sink, or hold more or less.

You don't need to buy special toys for water play. Many items around the house can be put to use for playing and exploring with water, for example colanders, strainers and sieves; jugs, teapots and coffee pots; buckets large and small; sponges and cloths; watering cans (espeically the kind which sprinkle rather than pour); funnels; whisks (especially with a bit of soap, to make bubbles); plastic bottles and condiment containers (great for squirting); things made of different materials which sink or float; plus of course any toy which won't be harmed by being in water.

Playing with sand provides learning opportunities similar to but different from water play. Many water play toys and found objects can also be used for sand.

Dry sand is a strange material which behaves like a solid in some ways, but a liquid in others. You can stand a toy dinosaur on it and it won't sink in like it would in water - but you can pour it through a funnel like water. It's very useful for kids to play with both wet and dry sand so they can explore both.

Wet sand lends itself very well to molding, in buckets, empty food containers, or anything else which has a hollw side that's not undercut, so it can release the sand shape. Kids can also make impressions in wet sand - like reverse molding, but also simply drawing or writing in the sand. Anything stick-like will work for this. Toy cars and other vehicles can also make cool-looking tracks in the sand, as can toy animals and birds. Plastic combs with some teeth removed to widen the gaps can be fun toys for this too.

Sand can make entire worlds. Introduce people, animals, or dinosaurs and a new land of pretend play opens up - in fact it can be a new and different land every day. Sometimes these can take the form of a flat map drawn in thesand, but even more fun is to be had by sculpting the sand into hills and valleys for the toy characters to explore and live in.

One traditional type of toy for sand play is construction machinery. Toy diggers, loaders, bulldozers and trucks make great sand toys to give your children hours of fun.