Winter Sandbox Fun for Kids

Make some "Geography" with Homemade Sandboxes

While the sandbox is buried under layers of snow and frozen solid you can still provide sand fun indoors and keep a tidy house. It’s hard to believe but this recipefeels better than damp beach sand. It is soft and velvety yet holds its shape when building castles and roads.  It also adds moisture to dry winter hands.

Homemade Sand

You will need homemade sand (recipe below), spoons, plastic measuring cups for pails, plastic people and animals, small cars and trucks, Legos, and other plastic pieces like trees to make scenes.

  Mix 8 cups white baking flour and 2 cups baby oil.  Add a little more oil ( ¼ cup) slowly  and mix  if it feels too dry. The mixture should clump together when you hold it in your fist. Continue to mix well. The sand can be stored it in a sealed container or freezer lock bag. Do not mix with water. 

What Can You Make in the "Sand?"

  Put it in a cookie sheet or several large cake pans so each child has a private sandbox. For easy clean up, place a large beach towel on a non-carpeted floor or table. Spilled sand will make the floor slippery. After sweeping, wash with dish detergent. If play cars get covered with sand or sand gets into toy crevasses just brush or knock off the sand from cars with a paint brush and wipe them off. You can keep a special bag for small sand toys especially for sand playtime. This silky sand will probably become your children’s favorite toy.

Imagination

   You can decide the kind of geographic features you will create with your child. Will it be your community, high mountains, Great Lakes, river basin, plains with roads, a cityscape with buildings and rivers, an island with a volcano, or an imaginary 

planet? Will the period of history be time of the dinosaurs, castles, in the future? Where will your imagination take you? Many children like to rescue or act out a story they have heard. 

  Features might include roads through mountain passes, coral reefs, plateaus, an isthmus, islands, archipelagos, peninsulas, plains, basins, or steppes. Water features can be a piece of paper colored with blue markers. Children can make wetlands for turtles and snakes, straits, oceans, gulfs, glaciers, deltas, lakes, bays, harbors, canals, channels, harbors for ships, and a river’s source and mouth. Just choose a few that fit your plan. You will be amazed at the new vocabulary and understanding your young children will develop.

Build It Together

 You can build, have conversations, and make decisions together. You and the kids can use the geographical terms and start your favorite or imaginary story with plastic figures, cars, and trucks. For more learning fun see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com; wnmufm.org/learning through the seasons, live and podcasts, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fofos