A Day of Sand and Water

Every child loves playing in the sand and in the water, especially smaller children who love building with sand and splashing in water. This type of party will keep little ones happy for hours. 

You can have a day of sand and water even if you live miles from a beach. You can even have it if the weather is not good enough to go outside (that is, if you are not too worried about your carpet or furniture.) A sand and water play area can be created fairly easily and will provide hours of fun for toddlers.

If you can be outside for the party, you can get two small wading pools and fill one with water and the other with sand. If you don’t live in an area where you can dig your own sand, it can be purchased by the bag in garde supply centers and it doesn’t take much to cover the bottom of a wading pool. Many parks and playgrounds also have sandboxes where you could hold your party. If you need to be inside for the party, put a waterproof tarp on the floor and limit the number of guests you invite. Wet the sand yourself before the kids come until it is damp enough to hold the shape of a cup or can and you will limit the mess. You will want to have shovels or spoons available, as well as some plastic cups for making castles. For outdoor affairs, provide spray bottles, squirt guns and lots of containers for the water 

Invitations: Print a picture of a sandcastle on your invitations or include an inflatable beach ball in the envelope. Be sure guests know that they will be getting dirty at the gathering.

Arrival: If possible, have your little guests remove their shoes and socks before they begin to play. Show them how to pack wet sand into a cup and turn it over to make the beginning of a castle. 

Main Event: Once kids of this age get started, they won’t need much direction. If the guests seem to be losing interest, show them how to make a road or tunnel in the sand. You could let them have some cars or toy animals to travel on the roads. They could also make streams of water in the sandbox with spray bottles and pitchers. They can pour water from smaller cups into larger ones and see how many it takes to fill up the big one. You could also give them toy boats and other things that float to play with in the water.. 

Refreshments: Kids could make their own “boats” to eat by putting tuna salad on a piece of bread or cracker and adding a triangular shaped corn chip for a sail.