The kids have had a smallish sandbox for several years now. It’s a Step2 product with a lid and has served it’s purpose well. They’ve played with it consistently over the years, but they’re just too big for it anymore.
So when I floated the idea of having them help make a new bigger sandbox, they jumped at the opportunity. Not having taken part in such a large project as this, they had some trouble understanding how, exactly, one set about making a sandbox. The understood the sand part, it was the box part that had them befuddled. If it wasn’t a big plastic container, then how the hell did it work?
When we setup a jungle-gym a few years back, we setup a nice little area to put it in which was framed with landscape timbers. I explained that we’d just use a corner of this area to make a box to but the sand in. They still weren’t convinced. So I told them to wait an watch.
We came home with 2 landscape timbers and 8 bags of sand. The boy was very confused because you can’t make a “box” with only 2 sides. So I set about placing one of the timbers in the corner of the play area and then it finally clicked.
From there, they helped move the mulch out of that area; lay weed-cloth down and pin it with sand; and then helped backfill the mulch against the new timbers. They even single handedly moved all the sand from the old sandbox into the new sandbox. Cleverly, they shoveled portions of it into the lid and then dumped it into its new home. For their finale, they teamed up to pick up and dump the remaining sand in the old sandbox into the lid, then picked up the lid and dumped the final load. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out how they could have improved their efficiency.
Even after all the sand was in place, the coup-de-grace materialized when I reinstalled the slide from their play gym. For now, it ended right in the new sandbox. They were more excited about landing in the sand from the slide than anything else.
They move their sand toys over into the new sand box and then proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in it.
I love it when a plan comes together.
One reply on “The Sandbox”
An annual spring ritual which you and your siblings enjoyed … from going to the lumberyard [no Home Depot or Lowes back then] … to filling the sand box, as well as the occasional rebuilding of the structure … followed by hours of imaginative play …. an enduring pastime which was only eclipsed by …. ‘Tonka Town’ !!!