Summer Outdoors, Fresh Air, Sand Boxes, Sand Box Toys and Lots of Fun!

"More text - wow me, please! I'd like to see more tips for ways to clean up the sandy mess and for keeping kitties from invading the giant litter box. Tell us too about why/how sand play is good for kiddos"

The first issue we will address is how to keep our sand box from becoming a litter box for the cats. This is pretty easy in reality; it is called a sand box cover. Most sand boxes either come with one or provide for one on order. If the sand box doesn't come with one, a simple heavy duty plastic tarp that you can buy in any hardware store along with some bungees to hold it in place works just fine. If the tarp idea doesn't sit well with you, one can always buy some ¼ inch plywood sheets, place them on top of the sand box, and weigh them down with a couple bricks or stones. No matter how you do it, you simply need to cover the sand box, and remove it from the animal world's access. I dislike chemicals, so for me that one is not a solution.

Next, the sandy mess is definitely a big part of sand box play. Here are a few modifications to consider. One thing you can do is use an alternative to sand. Substances like rice, oats, wheat, or even beans can serve as a substitute for sand. These can make clean-up easier, but can also present some challenges unique to their nature. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is that kids don't like playing in them as much as good old fashion sand. So here are a couple of strategies that seem to work for me around our house when it comes to the sand box and its mess.

First of all, we have placed our sand box about 100 feet away from the house. Here is the first amazingly simple strategy. The kids just seem to shed most of the sand during their journey from the sand box to the house! Next, consider what clothing the children are wearing when they go out to play in the sand box. During the winter months the bulky layers of clothes are not conducive to shedding excess sand. One might consider other play options for that time of year. Sand boxing definitely lends itself more to warm weather play particularly in the summer time when all that is necessary is a swim suit to play in the sand box, and a swim in the pool afterward to clean up. So here is another simple strategy involving productive play and creative cleanup. Have the wading pool (which is probably still full from yesterday) or the trusty garden hose nearby, and the sand mess becomes a no-care. When their sand play is done you simply "dip" them or "hose" them. Of course, running in and out of the house before this cycle has run its full course is strictly forbidden!

Another successful strategy we employ at our house is to place a soft hand brush by the back door to the house, and we have modeled for our grandchildren how to thoroughly brush themselves off before coming back into the house. We have modeled for the little ones how to empty out pant cuffs, pockets, shake their heads, take off shoes, and brush themselves off from head to toe. It's amazing what a thorough job they do independently! They then line up for inspection, and that is a big part of the fun. If they pass inspection, they get to come into the house. If not, well then we just help them out a little outside before the mess has a chance to make it into the house.

So now that we have completely removed the mess from this very traditional childhood activity, let's give some thought to some negative consequences of transforming this to a squeaky clean activity. Consider this, sometimes learning can be messy! We need balance in everything we do, and sometimes the mess is part of the creative process and can be a beneficial process of trial and error. Sometimes learning looks very, very messy and I bring that observation to you as a teacher, a mother, and a grandmother. Most all of childhood experience and learning revolves around play, imagination, and sensory stimulation. Remove any one of these from their childhood experience, and you remove a vital aspect of healthy child development. Childhood play often looks messy and disorganized. Childhood play, in its most natural uninterrupted form is often the means by which their developing brains are forming new synapse pathways that are critical in the development of higher level thinking and planning skills. Last, but certainly not least, let's not loose sight of a valuable opportunity to teach our children that there are responsibilities involved with all rewarding endeavors even playing in the sand box! This kind of play provides an excellent opportunity to teach our children that clean up is part of the fun, and gives them ownership of that responsibility.

Sand play helps children develop in four areas: mental, physical, cognitive, and social-emotional. Sand play is not just fun, it provides some of the most extraordinary experiences to be experienced as young children! There are whole books written on this subject, and far too much data to cover here in this short space. So I have added a great selection of books for you to choose from. You can select a topic and you can purchase one to cover a particular aspect of sand play. You can also follow some of the links provided in the RSS feed below for great information on the subject. I will, however, attempt to cover a couple of the high profile reasons, and those topics briefly here.

There are vast amounts of sensory benefits derived by children from having a sand box, and the appropriate sand box toys for children to play with. For starters it is engrained in the most basic nature of a child to experiment, and want to explore their very surroundings using every type of sensory means they have at their disposal. From the time they are born, everything goes into their mouths, doesn't it? As they get older the tactile nature of the touch, the sight of the eyes, the sounds entering the ears, and the smells that stimulate the olfactory center of the brain come more into play as their understanding broadens.

The sand box and its toys can play such a powerful beneficial role in aiding a young child to explore their senses, and develop their curiosity in the some of the most productive ways imaginable. To name just a few we can take a look at the creative and constructive nature of sand play, how it stimulates a child's imagination and how it stimulates their creativity. Children use their own creativity and imagination to make their own personal sand creations all by themselves without any interference from an adult. Children can use the sand toys and tools to make villages, castles, and whole cities with total freedom of thought. Their creations in the end analysis are always perfect in their own little eyes, and therefore serve as great self esteem and confidence builders. Play that is not interfered with by adults allows a child's creative skills to bloom in ways that will forever be the subject of PHD dissertations until the end of time.

Playing in the sand helps a child grow emotionally as well by teaching them the patience involved in making their creations as well as the negotiations necessary when things don't turn out as they wanted them to in the beginning. This builds their confidence, and helps a child learn how to constructively deal with tension, frustration, and confusion. It teaches them how to relax, and have an enjoyable experience which is rewarded by the feeling of their accomplishments. This feeling is caused by the production of the endorphins that the brain needs to feel secure and have a sense of well being. Whenever a child plays and enjoys themselves these critical endorphins are produced.

Playing in the sand allows a child's ability to socialize in a positive way to develop by being placed in an environment whereby the child's play involves sharing, communicating, helping, and cooperating with their friends while they play. They learn to build their ability to resolve the conflicts that will always occur when children play with each other, as well as learn to control their emotions when things go contrary to their own wishes and wants.

Playing in the sand will serve them well in some of the most rudimentary issues of science. For instance they will learn some of the simple concepts of how gravity affects their little towers when the sand dries out by the evaporation of the moisture it contains. They will learn about some basic physics principals when they try to engineer a bridge without the proper support structure or a tunnel that collapses as a result of lack of supports. They will learn about weight, size, volume, and a host of other mathematical measurements that become necessary for their little creation to become complete.

I can go on and on telling you why I am so enthusiastic about sand box play and elucidating its benefits until the earth becomes flat, but let me just sum it up simply by saying this. A young child's entire sensory experience of learning revolves around constructive play. It doesn't get any better than the good old fashion sand box.

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