Outside the Box: Sand and Water Table

I love when I hear ideas for how to use a toy in a new and different way to make it exciting again! We bought a sand and water table for our boys on clearance at Target the other day and one of my best friends sent me a list (from an Amazon reviewer) that was amazing. Granted, the kids are still in love with their table simply filled with water, but I will most definitely be using these ideas to turn the table into an all-season toy. Check these out!

• Sand alone


• Water alone


• Potting soil/trowels/silk plants/plastic pots


• Landscaping stones and small tonka construction vehicles (aka 'the quarry')


• Bubble station to use with the large and small wands


• Mommy made iceberg (colored blue) on the hottest summer day with dollar store penguins and polar bears. You can even shave the iceberg to make snow or put crushed ice from the freezer into the basins


• Water and play dishes with sponges and scrubbers to play clean-up without making a mess at the sink inside


• Aquarium gravel/toys/plants with pretend fish


• Sand over buried 'fossils; - pretend dinosaur bones from dollar stores


• Pan for gold by using sand sifters and dirt with various sizes of rocks spray painted gold


• Measuring spoons/cups/jugs to teach lessons about volume. Pair with bath color tablets to teach about color mixing


• Use the Little People sets (Noah's Ark comes to mind) to play pretend


• Arts and crafts projects that are better done outside like making slime, paper mache, etc


• Tin pans/muffin cups paired with dirt/sticks/water for mud pies


• Making sand castles or using shovels and buckets to transfer the sand to dump trucks


• Use the sand and water table as you should, with sand and water and add animals who swim in the ocean and birds who live on the beach

I really like this new concept of thinking outside the box about a toy and coming up with new ideas on how to use it. There might be more of these to come!