The Sandbox - A Vehicle to Develop Your Grandchild's Imagination
What an absolute delight it was to watch my granddaughter in her own backyard playing in her sandbox for the very first time! She took to it like a fish to water and immediately became focused on trying out all its possibilities. I understand from her mom and dad that even a week later she is still asking for "sandbox" several times a day.
Little Tykes puts out a really ideal plastic sandbox in the shape of a turtle, with a removable "shell" that gets put back on top after play to keep the cats from mistaking it for a litter box. The side of it has a ledge just big enough for a little rear end to rest on. Living on Long Island, we were holding out for "borrowing" some nice white beach sand in the dark of night from a local beach, but gave in to purchasing sterilized play sand from Loews, partly out of conscience, but mostly out of sheer convenience. Apartment dwellers or those without yards needn't give up the idea of sand play for their grandchildren. There are several commercial sand tables with covers available to purchase online or in your local toy supermarket that could be located on a balcony or patio. Some are sold combined with a water table.
Sand play offers the opportunity to practice and acquire many of the same mathematical, language and social skills of water play, with the additional feature of bring able to sculpt it, thereby extending the play to creative levels limited only by your child's imagination and previous experiences. Providing a few plastic cups and a shovel can help your grandchild turn a sandbox into a castle. Some cup cake tins and cookie cutters transform it into a bakery. The addition of a dump truck or two turns it into a construction site. One can only wonder if Danika formulated her first dreams of winning the Indy with a few plastic cars in her sandbox as a child. The concept of "inside" and "outside" is taught as your little one begins to realize that once the sand is "outside" the sandbox, it is harder to play with. My advice is not to struggle too long with this one, as it's one of those "aha" moments that you can't rush. Locate the sandbox in a place where sand directly outside of it won't be a problem. Model "inside" the first few times they put the sand "outside" and then grin and bear it until they come to the conclusion that they're wasting their sand by dumping it outside the box. You can point it out to them a few times, but if you make it a battle of wills, they'll give up on the sandbox all together and you both lose.
In my experience as a former nursery school teacher, I noticed that some parents shy away from providing a sandbox labeling it too "messy". Considering all the messes parents of young children are faced with each day, one can sympathize with the hesitation to add yet another one. If your grandchild cannot have a sandbox at home for whatever reason, you can come to the rescue by providing one at your place. After all, after the cleanup, we can send the child home and take a good rest :>
Will your grandchildren get dirty in the sandbox? Absolutely. Will you occasionally have to replace the sand when they or a little friend have an "accident" in it? Probably. Will they eventually grow out of the plastic turtle one and beg you to build a bigger one? I hope so. Will it be worth the extra effort? Generations of grown ups whose fondest backyard memories center around the sandbox shout an unequivocal "Yes!" For more on Enlightened Grandparenting visit Nona Nita's Nook
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Thank you for helping adults see the value in something as simple as sand play! It has served children well for many generations, and I'm glad to see it hasn't completely disappeared from the landscape of childhood!
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Sounds like great fun for the little ones. Sterilised sand, eh? Sounds safer than the stuff from the beach, since presumably germs, mites and other assorted nasties get nuked during the 'sterilising' process...
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