During the summer I’m generally in favour of opening the doors to the garden and letting my kids run riot, to me having fun is the most important thing a kid can do! However, the sensible mummy side to me does like to sneak a bit of learning in when I can, I’m not a fan of worksheets (though I do love the more educational comics) so it has to be something that the kids will find fun too! Playing with sand is one of my kids favourite things to do during warm weather so with that in mind I thought I’d share some educational sand play ideas, There’s some great ideas you can do indoors too so even if the weather isn’t that great you can still have fun!
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This fun dumper truck activity from Mom Inspired Life is a great way to help teach kids letter recognition.
These sand dribble sculptures from Still Playing School are great for sandboxes or at the beach and are perfect for fine motor practice.
Add some waterpipes for some fun engineering play like this from Little Bins for Little Hands.
Making an exploding volcano in your sandpit? Seriously?! My kids would love this simple science experiment over on Kidspot, especially as there’s dinosaurs involved!
I love this invitation to create with sand and glue – what ideas would this spark in your children?
Learn with Play at Home use sand from their sand pit to do this sensory literacy activity.
Preschool Powol Packets used the sand from her sandbox to make quicksand with her kids! This is a great sensory way to learn about how quicksand is formed and I love how Carla sneaks a bit of learning around the letter Q in too!
Coffee Cups and Crayons share how to use your sandbox to encourage your children’s vocabulary through storytelling.
Let your kids learn about colour mixing with this great sand painting activity from Homegrown Friends.
My Bright Firefly adds some gems and water to create a gorgeous sand play experience that teaches about water and landforms.
Our own sandbox is one of these
My kids used to have a sandbox at Grandma’s when they were younger and loved it – now they are older we love to take off to the coast on a Bank Holiday so you are never too old for sand play!
We mostly play the ‘tip the sand all over the lawn even though mummy told me not to’ game. Its fun….that and making gloop by pouring water in the sand pit. anything that makes a big old mess! Hahah he is having an awful lot of fun so I just let him get on with the mess and worry about it later!