Great for winter or rainy days...
Nonhardening Modeling Sand from Lakeshore Learning http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/ is the secret ingredient. It's $20 for 5 lbs. It's not a ton of sand for the money -- but do you really want a ton of sand on your carpet? It vacuums up great and even though it's dry, it molds like wet sand.
We bought a 16x11x7 rubbermaid tub and filled it with sand & little cars & measuring spoons. The size of the box fits 2 small children on opposite sides of the box perfectly. We only take it out during school hours to keep a kid (or two) busy. We keep an old sheet with the box and lay that out first. Then the sandbox goes on top of it. If they start to get sand out of the box, we close it up for the day. They learn very quickly not to get sand all over.
The big question is clean-up : We scoop up whatever sand we can, pick up the sheet by the edges so the sand stays in the middle of the sheet, and shake out the sheet (outside). You can vacuum if you need to and I haven't found pieces of sand sticking to my feet after I've vacuumed the carpet. (We're barefoot most of the time around here.)
It's my favorite indoor winter keep-the-kids-busy-so-I-can-get-school-done item. It's also a great motivator for the bigger kids because they want to get done quickly so they can play, too! I love this as a Christmas gift - but you have to get permission from the mom, first. The idea of this can be scarey, but the reality hasn't been any big deal for us. Just fun!
We bought a 16x11x7 rubbermaid tub and filled it with sand & little cars & measuring spoons. The size of the box fits 2 small children on opposite sides of the box perfectly. We only take it out during school hours to keep a kid (or two) busy. We keep an old sheet with the box and lay that out first. Then the sandbox goes on top of it. If they start to get sand out of the box, we close it up for the day. They learn very quickly not to get sand all over.The big question is clean-up : We scoop up whatever sand we can, pick up the sheet by the edges so the sand stays in the middle of the sheet, and shake out the sheet (outside). You can vacuum if you need to and I haven't found pieces of sand sticking to my feet after I've vacuumed the carpet. (We're barefoot most of the time around here.)
It's my favorite indoor winter keep-the-kids-busy-so-I-can-get-school-done item. It's also a great motivator for the bigger kids because they want to get done quickly so they can play, too! I love this as a Christmas gift - but you have to get permission from the mom, first. The idea of this can be scarey, but the reality hasn't been any big deal for us. Just fun!
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