Sand and Water Play

A child may have all the toys in the world ,

but without play with sand and water , they are a deprived child!

A child relishes and needs a messy play. Children are naturally messy and adults spend a great deal of effort stopping them being messy and cleaning them and their messes up. They need us to provide them with legitimate ways of being messy with a purpose.

Water and Sand, Paint and Playdough, give them permission to explore, experiment with and manipulate substances which have qualities that are more child - friendly than most playthings. The majority of toys are designed so that there are 'right' and 'wrong' ways of playing with them. Water and sand are unstructured play materials The child needs to decide how they need to play with them: right and wrong are not involved (apart from a few simple rules, such as not throwing sand) and by the adult providing responsible supervision wherever there is water play.

Sand and water are such co-operative, free-form substances. They delight children by being able to be prodded, patted, scooped, poured, splashed, put into containers and much else, in the most satisfying ways. Children will often be happily occupied for concentrated periods, far longer with this kind of play than they will with toys which exasperatingly "won't go right"!

These natural, flexible, inexpensive materials allow a child to be 'in charge' of what is happening in ways that rarely happen in the life of a young child. They can be the boss for a brief period - a nice counterbalance to the majority of times when they must comply with adults wishes because it's time to do something or other.

Even if we don't have a sand pit or paddling pool, it is vitally important to provide play with water and sand, even if only in limited ways. A bowl of water, an unhurried time in the bath, a tub of sand, are better than nothing at all.