Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sand is wonderful !






I love sand because it keeps young children busy for a long time.Yesterday I took my kids to Bishan Park so that they could play in the sand pit.They don't get to play with sand very often because it is difficult to arrange sand play indoors & in their school also there is no provision for sand play (they do rice play, instead).

My preschooler Zunairah was ecstatic to see the sand pit & she immediately set out to use her play set to built sand castles. Nayaz was also fascinated but he was more slow to plunge himself into sand play.He was more pensive & was more interested in touching & feeling the sand.However,after a while he acted energetic and started throwing sand at us.I made it clear that this is something that he could not do.

I got down to play with them & out came my inner child.We made castles & roads & used twigs & leaves to decorate our creations. I was happy to see that my kids were enjoying themselves.I encouraged my preschooler to write letters in the sand with the help of a twig.

Sand play can be very therapeutic for children (my kids slept very well yesterday) & it provides lots of learning opportunities. It stimulates imaginative play when different toys such as dinosaurs or cars are introduced & also promotes physical development (when they pour or sift sand or dig in the sand).Mathematical concepts can be introduced by parents during sand play by providing measuring cups & spoons & also by using terms such as "more","less","empty" or "full".

On the whole I feel that sand play is a welcome break for modern kids are sadly so used to plastic store-bought toys.

2 comments:

Neelum said...

wow that sounds like a lot of fun !!
it is so true when you say how the kids of today have little natural stuff to play with. We also enjoy our sand-play times, and the beach is a hot favorite with us all.

Malina said...

Yes, beach is a hot favorite with us as well.And the kids then can combine water & sand play which is more fun!