One of our favorite things to do on a vacation is enjoy the beaches and we all end up having such a great time laying in the sun, splashing in the waves, and other beach fun. With little ones, the best part of the beach is usually playing in the sand. My kids always come up with such creative ways to play with the sand. With how much my boys love playing and creating with the sand it has been fun to bring home a bit of the fun we have at the beach right to our backyard.
Backyard Beach Fun Ideas
Build a Sand Castle – You can use sand toy buckets and a little bit of water to make sand castles just like you are used to on the beach. To make a sand castle, just pack a bucket full of slightly damp sand. If your sand is completely dry, just add a little bit of water either directly to the bucket or to the area of sand you will be working with. Pack the sand in firmly so that it will hold the shape of your bucket. Then, turn the bucket upside down onto the sand and slowly lift up on the bucket leaving your first tower of sand behind. You can stack smaller buckets full of sand on top of larger towers to create an interesting sand castle.
Create Roads or a Moat – You can make pathways, ditches, or dig moats in your sand box for variety and fun in your designs. Roads are easy to build with a rolling sand toy that can clear your pathways giving you a smooth and nice roadway.
Write in the Sand – Grab a stick, toy, or just use your finger and you can create your own sayings in the sand. You can encourage your child to practice writing letters or shapes or even write their own name or sentences. This also works for creating patterns and pictures, too. You can use a variety of sand toys to give you different shapes and textures in your pictures. A small sand rake can give you an interesting lined pattern or crisscross your drawn paths to make a cobblestone look.
Buried Treasure – You can become your own backyard pirate by covering up toys in sand and creating games of bury-and-go-seek. This is really fun with at least two players but you can also create a memory game by burying several toys and seeing if your child can remember which toy was buried where.
Act out a Story – Encourage your child to get creative making up their own stories or acting out some of their favorite movies and books. Step2′s sand characters make perfect companions for creating story re-enactments.
Step2 Sandbox and Sand Toys Review
My oldest three boys, ages 2 to 6, have all really enjoyed playing with the Step2 Play & Store Sandbox. They love the themed sandbox toys that are designed to be durable and have fun elements for different ways to play with the sand. The Sand-tastic Construction Set is their favorite since they love the dump truck and all the construction cones! They have also really enjoyed the Sand-tastic Castle set as well, though. My four year old liked acting out different scenes with the knight and the princess. They all absolutely loved the rolling sand toys that level out the sand to “erase” their designs, as they called it. The sandbox isn’t too large to take up a ton of space in our backyard but still has lots of room for play. I like the built-in spots to sit so they don’t have to sit directly on the sand if they don’t want to. I really appreciate that a plastic lid is included to keep out bugs, rain, dirt, etc. Having a sandbox cover that is large also lets us keep all the sand toys right in the sandbox so they are ready for play and cleanup is a breeze!
You can find these fun new products by Step2 directly on the Step2 website, Toys ‘R Us, select local retailers, and on Amazon. The Play & Store Sandbox is $49.99 and the Sand-Tastic Playsets retail for $12.99 each.
Backyard Beach Fun with my 2 and 4 year old boys
playing with the Step2 Play & Store Sandbox!
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I am a Step2 Test Drive Blogger. I received products in exchange for my review and opinion. No other compensation was provided.