Family Forum / Parenting / Parenting / July 2004

Get or build it with a cover. Will avoid cats pooing in it. Also make sure
you have a good layer of weed stopper under it but it needs to be able to
drain any water that will get in there.
Make sure you get good sand. Ours is a little too coarse and DD isn't fond
of it to sit in.
Size will depend on how many kids you think will get in there at one time
and how much space you have available.

Liz

My kids all loved sandpits! The only downside was so did the local cats so
we had to make sure the cover was on securely over night

Melsisa

all and now we live near the beach we don't have it set up at all, when we
finally get our own home DH will build one so I'll be making notes of any
tips....
Alissa

Fleas can breed in sand, which can be like a MAJOR pain in the arse if you
have neighbours that don't keep their pets up to date... a decent cover
would most likely fix that problem. I'd make sure it was within reach of the
hose, had to make a decent sand castle out of dry sand :-P LOL

Nic H

the clams are too small.

get some sleepers, and make it that way. like a square.

go to a nursery, a bag of sand will set you back about $5, you will
need 2-3 bags. washed river sand.

have a cover for it. a tarp and bricks or something would do.. its to
keep out cats.

Michelle

remove the sand to reply to me.

Plastic clam shell is what my children have. Both of them use it. It holds
about 20-30 kg of sand which was bought from the local hardware house.
(which is builders sand as it doesn't mind being a bit wet and actually
builds better ( and otoh my dd needs wetter sand as dry sand upsets her
eczema more )  My children are only allowed to use sand pit toys that I have
given as that only and had to lay the rule down a bit as when a bob the
builder phone got into the sand pit and wouldn't work someone complained big
time. (not me I was happy I didn't have to listen to it for a while)

One clam shell is on the ground with the sand whilst the other side is then
used to cover the sand. (shells are about $30 dollars at toy shops)  It is
light enough to be pulled or dragged around if we need to move it and its
big enough for the two children, sometimes 3 or 4, depending on what they
are building. And if its really warm you could use the open side for
somewhere to splash around. (but we never did as we had a pool anyway)

With clams I think children tend to sit on the outside and reach inside to
play with sand.  We haven't needed to be big on the sand pit as both
day-care and kindergarten have sand pits that are much much bigger. If
anything I sometimes think I could sell mine as the kids are having to much
fun with there cubby house as it has more options for playing.

I as a child had a huge sand pit. It was big enough to build roads, lakes,
house's with heaps of toys etc  and my dad built it put something like 400
kg of sand (bought a trailer load to fill it). It could sit about 6 or  even
8 children comfortably but never had that many.  It did have a lid that
could be rolled out so I could help pack up. (and as the lid rolled it
didn't need a lot of space)

Just remember he bigger the sand pit the more sand it needs and the more
likely sand will go every where. (over time you will lose sand anyway)

The only downside to owning a sand pit is
Children taking wrong toys into pit,
Children scoping sand to other places in the back yard,
Children throwing sand,
Children walking inside with sand in shoes/pockets, clothes,
No lid (cat poop)
Children losing interest over time.

The upsides are
Endless fun,
Building skills,
Demolishing/flatting skills,
Sharing skills,
Endless fun,
Good if you don't live close to a beach.
Did I say fun?

Hope this helps

Nik

To find lost toys and to clean it out a bit every now and again, buy a
big collander (sp?) from one of the $2 shops.. It cleans it out well..

Ours is built into the corner of our yard using an old dunny door split
in two down the center line, so I guess it is about 2m squared.  We just
used some metal brackets from bunnings to fix the corners to each
other/the fence.  It is big enough for 3 preschoolers to play in
together.  It allows for 2 seperate 'games', but is not spacious enough
for 3 games.

My only innovation was to line it with a couple of metres of fake grass
(from bunnings again).  This lets the water into the ground but stops
plants from growing up and kids from digging through to the dirt below.
Also, if you need to chuck out the sand and start anew you can use the
grass as a tarp to lift the dirty sand out with.

My two big problems are: 1)  It's under a tree, so it gets full of
leaves and twigs which get stinky after rain.  Don't build one under a
tree; and 2) Cat poop!  I tarp the pit at night, but we live in the city
and there are so many cats around that there is usually at least one
that takes a dump or a wizz out there in the day.  The kids are in and
out all day, so I don't like to tarp it over in the day, so I have to
depoop it at least once a day.  I hate cats!!

You also need to think about indoors vs. outdoors toys.  DS *had* a
great collection of Thomas wooden railway trains ... one night in the
rain and the paint peels right off those puppies.

eggs.