Sandbox Is probably the most popular children's location, through which absolutely everyone passed at a certain age. As a child, you could have passed a football and basketball court, abandoned construction sites and horizontal bars, but not a sandbox. Many parents, realizing that such an object is very important for the normal development and simply good mood of the child, strive to give the baby what he needs. To do this, they independently build a similar location on their own personal plot, in order to know for sure that the baby is under supervision, and no one offends him, that there will be no outside bad people or those who want to walk the dog in the wrong place, and at the same time give the child the opportunity to walk in the fresh air when he wants. Such a step should be called commendable, but only on condition that you fully disclosed the topic for yourself before starting the construction.
Features:
It's worth starting with the fact that children's sandboxes on the site are requiredand adults shouldn't hesitate to build them. The street location is able to occupy children, if not entirely and completely, then at least for a while, while the parents are resting or doing useful things in the garden. The child himself is also not just having fun - sculpting develops his fine motor skills, it also trains tactile sensations and develops emotional intelligence. Taking other people's children from open areas and allowing them to spend time in your yard under your supervision will help the child improve their own social skills, and the parents of the invited children may also be grateful.
For all its advantages, the sandbox is not yet the kind of entertainment that children will quickly give up.
In an amicable way, from two to eight to ten years, any child will find something to do in the sandbox - at first it will be primitive "Easter cakes", and later, rather complex cities with a developed network of streets. In a word, such a structure in the yard is practical from all sides, but only on condition that it meets the general requirements for three important criteria.
- Safety... Those who make a sandbox on their own rarely buy materials for this on purpose - instead, various used materials are intensively used. Make sure that there are no nails left in them, that the boards do not have too sharp edges that you can get hurt, and that there is no flaking toxic paint - all these moments pose a danger to the health of the baby.
- Convenience... Forgive me, any fool can pour sand, but you must create a really comfortable resting place for your child. First of all, think about whether it is comfortable to sit all day in the sun - of course not, so you either have to come up with an umbrella fungus, or immediately place the location in the shade of a tree. If the designer also provides for a special place for storing game props, at the same time it will be possible to accustom little owners to order.
- Hygiene... Even if there is no access to animal sand, it will still gradually become contaminated and will have to be cleaned. If so, it is necessary to plan the structure so that the sand does not mix with the ground. In addition, the same sides should not absorb dirt - let them be easy to clean.
What are they?
Only at first glance, all sandboxes are of the same type - in fact, you can and should connect your imagination in order to choose the best one for your children from all the options in accordance with their needs and preferences. People with an engineering streak collect even amazing mobile structures, we will consider all the most realistic and common options for a children's sandbox with additional sections.
By design
First you need to figure out if a simple little sandbox is enough for us with a box for toys, or we want a large prefabricated modular design that will replace an entire playground for kids and make them not go far from home, since everything is in their own yard. Outdoor models can take on a rather complex configuration with a slide and swing - such a “constructor” of modules is especially appropriate when there are many children in the family, or when parents welcome the hospitality of their baby.
The above design can be either integral, which is useful for its overall stability, or collapsible.
In this case, each section is independent and is only attached to the rest in any convenient (and reliable!) Way... Thanks to this, the same folding swing, which is not very relevant in winter, can be removed into the house for the cold season.
There are also portable folding sandboxes without additional sections. This solution is quite rare - it consists of separable sides attached to the bottom of dense roll materials. If necessary, sand from the sandbox is scooped out with scoops, after which the sides are separated, and the bottom is rolled up - in such a compact form, the structure can be moved to any other place and deployed again.
By design
The simplest functional sandbox in the form of a square outline or a round ring with sand inside it successfully performs its main functions, but at the same time it must be remembered that children will always give preference to something original and unusual, while always being colorful and bright. The task of parents is to create a product that is beautiful and colorful, especially if the frame is hexagonal, which allows you to logically apply as many different tones as possible. Actually, the drawing on the sides can significantly change the child's perception of his play location - if one of the parents has artistic talents, you can draw a flower, turtle, crab, sunflower or bee - depending on what gender your children are, and what may be of interest to them. You can go a more modern way, without inventing any drawings, but simply stylized the sides for the fortress walls, built from the Lego constructor.
A completely wild childish delight can be observed if you build not a simple sandbox, but construction with a gazebo or a house. The nature of children is such that from an early age, kids tend to imitate adults in everything, including having their own home - that is why they try to build huts from any materials at hand. There is no doubt that with the efforts of an adult, such a house will turn out to be much more constructive and attractive, and most importantly, durable. Here, of course, you need to think over the size of the "building" so that you can hide there with brothers-sisters or friends during the rain, even when the children grow up a little.
At the same time, it is not necessary to build a full-fledged house - it is important that you get a canopy, under which precipitation does not fall.
Children will not remain indifferent and to a structure that resembles any of the modes of transport... For a typewriter, of course, you have to go to the store, and not make it yourself. But imagine how a sandbox, made as if in the back of a truck, will charm a child, while you can also get into the cabin itself, which plays the role of that very house from the previous paragraph. A sandbox-ship is built according to the same logic: sand is scattered on the deck between the sides, and a sail is stretched over it (or made of solid materials).
Materials
As we suggested above, the purchase of materials is rarely included in the action plan when making a sandbox on their own - people simply use the tools and materials that are idle on the site. It may seem to a person without imagination that there is nothing to make a structure out of - in fact, creative dads come up with the most unexpected solutions that do not lose their practicality and visual appeal.
But first of all, of course, pay attention to the "classic" building materials. Bricks and foam blocks, fragments of old boards and timber, even pallets - all this can be successfully used for the "contour" of the sandbox, although for load-bearing vertical structures the selection of materials, of course, should be a little more stringent. Solitary small sandboxes make even based on old tiresespecially if you have big tires from multi-ton trucks at your disposal. Actually, even empty plastic bottles, if they are weighted down by pouring them inside the same sand, they can also be a building material.
As a very compact sandbox, even old sinkif you can reliably plug the former drain hole. Some of the parents attach such a sink even on top of the old table, or simply fill the sides along the contour on the last, thanks to which the sandbox is already acquiring a somewhat unusual form factor - the child has to sit behind it, and not inside it.
As for sheds and "fungi", unnecessary materials at hand are often used for their construction.... If you have an old piece of tarpaulin and know how to securely fasten it so that the pegs will not be blown down by the strong wind, then you are ready to make a baby shelter that kids should love, considering what they sometimes build their own "architecture" from. Actually, a small "fungus" can be made even from an old umbrella, or better - several at once in order to increase the coverage area of protection.
In all cases, when erecting a roof, reliable pegs are needed, and for their construction it is best to choose reliable metal rods with a margin of length so that they can be dug into the ground to a sufficient depth for normal stability.
What kind of sand is needed?
Don't think that absolutely any sand is suitable for a sandbox - if you have always thought that way, then in fact your childhood was not so safe. It is necessary to select bulk material according to a number of criteria, which we will now consider.
First of all, we are interested in exactly clean sand, and not that mixture from beaches and river beds, which in our country is called so. There should not be any shells and other foreign objects in the mixture we have chosen, because the same shells can have sharp edges and pose a cut hazard, and plant remains can rot and contaminate the sand. To solve the problem, it is better to go to a construction hypermarket and purchase the substance in its pure form, or, alternatively, sift at least several times what you have collected on the nearest sandbank.
The composition of the sand does not really matter until the parents figure out that this directly affects its appearance, and it is more pleasant to pick up and sculpt the sand that seems beautiful. Recently, there has even been an opportunity safely touch up the sand - after such a PR action, children will surely be sure that there is no cooler sandbox than theirs anywhere. At the same time, you should tint the sand yourself only with those means that are completely safe for humans, and if you ordered such a service or purchase already tinted sand from the seller, ask for a safety certificate.
Builders know that sand is also of different fractions - with large or small particles. We don't need dust at all, because at the slightest gust of wind it will blow it away, it will quickly spread throughout the yard, it will fall into the nose and mouth, and it is not very convenient to sculpt it out of it. However, coarse-grained sand cannot be considered ideal - if individual particles are perfectly distinguishable with the naked eye, it will be just as well noticeable that the sculpted figures are imperfect, and with jags up to half the diameter of a grain of sand. It is generally accepted that a sand diameter of about 1-2 millimeters is best suited for children's modeling.
A separate point is the uniformity of sand particles... If all the particles are approximately the same size, there will be no problems with sculpting - there will be no voids in the shapes, they will take the given shape evenly.
If individual fragments are larger than the rest, then it will be difficult to mold something sensible.
How to choose?
Regardless of whether you purchase a ready-made sandbox or do it yourself, it is important to understand what characteristics it should meet. We have specially collected all the important characteristics that will help you not to make the wrong choice.
- The height of the sides. On the one hand, the sand should not pour out through them, on the other hand, the obstacle should not be difficult for the baby. For babies under three years old, it is usually advised not to exceed the 20 cm mark, for all the other 25 cm it is considered the average norm.
- Lenght and width. If you decide not to limit your own children to the size of an old car tire, please note that there are no sandbox models on sale less than 120 x 120 cm in size.Such dimensions are considered the smallest permissible per child throughout his childhood, although at the earliest age of the same the area would even be enough for two. If we start from the fact that there are at least two children, and they will use the sandbox even at school age, then the sizes should start from 180 to 180 cm.
- Depth. To comply with sanitary standards and the elementary cleanliness of the sand, the depth of the sand layer is usually made such that the child does not have the opportunity to dig himself to the ground. Most sandboxes do not have any physical bottom, therefore, having reached the wet ground, a curious baby risks getting dirty himself and spoiling all the sand. There are no specific recommendations for this criterion, but it is always better to take the depth with a margin.
- Height... This criterion is relevant only for those sandbox models that have any kind of superstructure equipped with a roof. Remember how children, in conditions of fast play, do not have time to notice obstacles and constantly bump against them - and you will understand that any roof must be at the level that it is impossible to hit your head against. In this case, it is necessary to start not from the current height of the children, but from the expected one, which will be at the age when the kids will get bored with the sandbox.
Where to put?
There are not so many options for placing a sandbox, despite the fact that theoretically it can be installed almost anywhere within the fence of your own backyard territory. Once you understand the logic of constraints, you realize that you can count on the right places on one hand.
First of all, parents make a sandbox in their own yard so that the baby is in sight all the time - therefore, a good idea is that it involves assembling the structure in a place where you can watch the baby without interrupting your daily important affairs.
Despite the fact that staying in the sunlight is useful in terms of vitamin D production, it is more logical to place the sandbox in the shade of trees, otherwise the kid who is carried away by the game will bake his head, and he may, having lost consciousness, fall uncontrollably from this.
If possible, you should remove the improvised area away from busy highways, somewhere in the backyard - so the kid will breathe less gases and will definitely not run out onto the roadway for a toy thrown by a friend. And also do not have a children's area next to the playground, where other children will play with the ball - a game projectile can be injured.
How to care?
Sandbox - not an object that you can build once and then forget about it forever. Least you will have to regularly keep the sand cleanby removing everything from it, especially sharp stones, glass, fragments of broken toys and any other debris - this is the only way to protect the child from unnecessary injuries.
In an amicable way, the sand should be completely changed once or twice a year - The frequency depends on how intensively the kids use the sandbox. We have no doubt that no one adheres to this rule in public places, but after all, you made your own sandbox so that it was better than the public one, so it would be good to resort to adequate sanitary measures. In addition, the wind and the children themselves constantly carry away part of the sand beyond the perimeter of the sides, so it must be refilled periodically.
Regular painting, by the way, is also not a purely decorative measure. - a properly selected paint and varnish material is able to protect metal from rust, and wood from decay. Many parents choose plastic because it is indifferent to both types of damage, and it just needs to be wiped periodically, without staining.
In order not to deal with sand cleaning, you can go the other way - cover the sandbox for a while while the child is not using it... Shop models are often equipped with lids or special capes made of reliable materials - both can be made by yourself. Thanks to this solution, you will be able to withstand the wind blowing away the sand and bringing in all debris in its place, as well as restrict access to the sand for various animals that may find that the sandbox is very convenient for their life.
For information on how to make a children's sandbox with your own hands, see the next video.
