Monday, November 3, 2008

Singing The Praise Of Our Sand Box

This is one of those items on my list of camping tips to squeeze in somewhere. It's actually an idea I talked about before, but it came in SO handy on our recent rainy camping trip, that I'm feeling the need to share it again in case someone missed it.

My husband thinks this idea is one of the best I ever came up with. But really, it is simply sand in a basin. We like to add all kinds of small construction equipment, as well as some Dollar Tree glass jewels for them to dig up.

It rained (hard) for the first day and night of our camping trip and the ground never did dry out. Unfortunately, where do the little ones like to play?? On the ground! So while we adults could sit contentedly around the campfire on our chairs, the kids needed someplace nearby to play where we could watch them.

We spread a tarp under one of our canopies and put the sand box out. These two little ones spent hours, literally, playing there. In the evenings, they just propped up a lantern and kept at it.

Now, we keep the sand box in the garage next to the washer and dryer. My little guy will often go out and sit on a small rug to play in the sand when it's not very nice weather.

And that's the beauty of it. You can use it anywhere.

We often throw it in the back of the van when we go out to cut wood and need a safe place for him to play.

We take it along to picnics when we aren't sure what there will be for him to do.

We even take it along to the drive-in movie so he has something to do while we wait for the movie to start.

The possibilities are endless, and a trip to the dollar store for a few new "sand" toys is all it needs to gain new life.

You could buy lots of expensive toys and video systems, buy how long will those things hold their interest? My older boys and their friends still jockey for space around the sandbox.

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