Sand and Water Play at Home

I loved the Sand and Water table by ELC but since we lived in a flat, that is out of the question. When I saw that they are selling the sand and water table accessories at 20% off, I couldn’t resist and got it home. Hmm… just playing with water don’t seem fun enough, so I thought I’ll make my own sand and water table alternative.

I hesitated to do this as I have no domestic maid to help me clean up now! But how can I deprive my kids of some sand and water fun? So, the very noble side of me went ahead and was scolding myself how silly I was when I spent an hour washing up and cleaning up the sand. But the boys had a really good time. I’m sure I swore I’ll never do this again while cleaning, I think I might take back my words now that I recalled how happy they were. Mummies have bad memory, that's why people have 2nd birth. But I need to think of better cleaning strategy before attempting again.

What You Need:
2 pails/container (1 for water and 1 for sand)
Masking tape to tape the toy to the pails/containers
Plastic sheet for the floor
Sand
Water

Top view. I didn't have too much sand and water but had to add more as they got frustrated as they got little.

Caged boys. I locked them in during the preparations and they were really excited to see what I was setting up. They dashed out when I opened the gate! 

K was so thrilled to see the water and sand flowing down, spinning the wheel.

Happily playing with my sand and water table alternative.

This is really fun but a word of caution. This is not for the faint heart! hah...

Planting Seeds

An introduction to Gardening.

What You Need:

Plastic Containers

Cotton Wool

Beans (I used Green Beans)

Water

Spray Bottle (optional but it's a must to get my boys interested)

Method
Just lay the seeds on the cotton wool and spray water on it. I had to do everything until the spraying part as the boys were not interested at all.

See how a spray bottle transformed a grumpy boy to a happy boy?

Another grumpy boy pushing the beans to me until his brother sprayed water on his face. The beans were being neglected, they derived more joy at spraying themselves and each other.

Transfering Water

We have not been doing many new activities since they started school. We used to do activities in the morning and outdoor activities in the afternoon. I'm still trying find suitable times to do our learning activities. The real reason behind the lack of new activities is really because I'm totally drained at night with K waking up screaming. So, I have been doing old favorites like Easel Painting, Scooping Beans, Paint Table, etc.  Managed to pulled together a new activity to share with you.

What You Need:
"Dropper"
Container
Food Coloring (optional)

Y squeezing the colored water and transfering to the other container

Left: K, Right: Y

I call the thing "dropper" because I'm not sure what it's called or meant to be used. I saw it at Daiso and thought it's a fun tool to include in our learning activities. I added color to the water so they could see how the water move clearly. 

Splash Park @ Sembawang Shopping Centre

Most toddler loves water play but as my boys are very cautious children, they are wary of public places like a water playground where there are lots of children running and splashing. The Splash Park at Sembawang Shopping Centre is the one we go most often as the crowd is not as bad as other playgrounds.

On this day, they were harrassing us to bring them to the swimming pool but we were low on energy and a water playground seems to be a good trade. Y is more comfortable with playing with water while K does not like water getting into his eyes very much. It's easy to see who had a better time from the pictures below.  

The Splash Park is located at Sembawang Shopping Centre and it's opened from 11am-2pm and 5pm-8pm. There is also a sheltered dry playground and it's a great bad weather back up.