I'm not sure anyone believes me when I say that the best thing you can do to keep your kids occcupied is to have a big pile of sand dumped in your front yard. People always laugh when I say that, but I'm not joking -- just look at these photos! Today we had a big pile of sand dumped in our front yard. True, after a week or so of playing and spreading, this pile will turn into the ground covering for the wooden playscape we're preparing to build (stay tuned for construction photos!), but in the meantime, it's a playground in and of itself.
It was hard to know what to do first with our imported sand dune. Climb it? Roll down it? Rake it? Dig in it? Throw it around? I personally liked sitting at the top of the mountain like a wise old Tibetan monk, handing out wisdoms like "thou shalt not poke your brother with the rake" and "thou shalt not bury the family dog". That and shoving sand down the hill on top of my children.
Zoo Boy liked the sliding option a lot. I encouraged an open-legged approach for maximum sand-moving capacity. (I turned the hose on the kids after a couple hours of sand sifting, and even then they wound up with a strip search and tub scrub immediately upon returning to the house.)
J found digging appealing. Eventually he wound up almost completely buried (I was too busy doing said burying to photograph it). I can tell that both kids are looking forward to our local lake's beach seasonal opening at the end of June. This was a nice preview, and a good way to kill a hotter-than-normal spring afternoon. We were finally driven indoors by impending thunderstorms (which graciously held off until after the bath), otherwise I strongly suspect we'd still be out there.
If there's not a parable that reads "you can tell how much fun you had by how dirty your feet are", there should be.
I'm not sure anyone believes me when I say that the best thing you can do to keep your kids occcupied is to have a big pile of sand dumped in your front yard. People always laugh when I say that, but I'm not joking -- just look at these photos! Today we had a big pile of sand dumped in our front yard. True, after a week or so of playing and spreading, this pile will turn into the ground covering for the wooden playscape we're preparing to build (stay tuned for construction photos!), but in the meantime, it's a playground in and of itself.
It was hard to know what to do first with our imported sand dune. Climb it? Roll down it? Rake it? Dig in it? Throw it around? I personally liked sitting at the top of the mountain like a wise old Tibetan monk, handing out wisdoms like "thou shalt not poke your brother with the rake" and "thou shalt not bury the family dog". That and shoving sand down the hill on top of my children.
Zoo Boy liked the sliding option a lot. I encouraged an open-legged approach for maximum sand-moving capacity. (I turned the hose on the kids after a couple hours of sand sifting, and even then they wound up with a strip search and tub scrub immediately upon returning to the house.)
J found digging appealing. Eventually he wound up almost completely buried (I was too busy doing said burying to photograph it). I can tell that both kids are looking forward to our local lake's beach seasonal opening at the end of June. This was a nice preview, and a good way to kill a hotter-than-normal spring afternoon. We were finally driven indoors by impending thunderstorms (which graciously held off until after the bath), otherwise I strongly suspect we'd still be out there.
If there's not a parable that reads "you can tell how much fun you had by how dirty your feet are", there should be.
2 comments:
Hi Shelley, love your blog. My daughter always ends her emails with this signature:
"To those who understand, no explanation is necessary; to those who don't understand, no explanation will suffice"
You just get it Shelley-keep up the good work. You're a great mom!!!
yes you are a great mom!!
i love a dirt pile. a rock pile. a mulch pile. just give me a pile and i'm set to go. er, other than a laundry pile...
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