Kids Sand Pits and Mud Kitchen Play
The play that sandpits allow is terrific! Your children develop skills, exercise their muscles, and work on coordination while letting their imagination run free.
At KidzShack, we believe there is nothing more important than playing and spending time outside for our children. We offer safe and easy to construct play equipment for your child to explore, spend time away from devices and screens, and engage their imagination.
We have a fantastic range of cubby houses with built-in sandpits for hours and hours of entertainment that offer several educational and physical benefits.
- Play with sand and buckets helps the development of mathematical concepts, such as capacity, volume, and measurement
- The sand allows for sensory skill development and sensory play
- Playing with sand develops fine motor skills
- Sand play improves hand-eye coordination
- Sandpits promote creativity and the use of imagination
- Sandpits assist with language development and vocabulary as our children socialise with others or learn to describe their games and experiences
Investing in your child's imagination and aiding their development with a sandpit at home is a great idea. However, building a sandpit isn't worth it, especially if you currently lease your home or don't have time to dig trenches in your garden.
Believe it or not, building a homemade sandpit is a time-consuming and strenuous job that includes digging trenches, crafting frames, and lining the sandpit before filling it.
Where can you get sandpits?
There is a solution to skipping those hours of back-breaking work and having a sandpit at home for your children to enjoy. It's a KidzShack cubby house with a built-in or built-on sandpit! Flatpacks are the most convenient way to get your child's sandpit and cubby house into your backyard quickly and ready for all the adventures they can imagine. With a KidzShack cubby house and sandpit, there's no need to try and figure out the costs or logistics of crafting a safe sandpit without causing significant damage to any underground pipes or cabling in your garden. Plus, our flat pack cubby homes with sandpits come straight to your door for added convenience. All cubbies with sandpits arrive as flat packs, with pre-made panels, so they take two people no longer than 2.5 hours to assemble and make ready for playtime.
Wondering what sand for sandpits is right? We highly recommend washed beach or river sand for sandpits as they are clean and don't contain choking hazards like small rocks or pebbles. Although cheap and easy to find, we don't advise using brick or builder's sand for kiddie's sandpits. These sands are too coarse and contain abrasive materials like pieces of shells, coral and clay.
How much sand for a sandpit? Here's how to calculate how much sandpit sand you'll need for your square or rectangular KidzShack cubby house sandpit:
Length x Width x Height
For example, 3m x 2.5m x 1m = 7.5m³
To protect your child's sandpit from the rain, plant debris, small rodents, and creepy-crawlies, we suggest using a tight-fitting vermin-proof cover like shade cloth that'll allow moisture to permeate to avoid water pooling and flooding.
Are sand pits dangerous? No, but sometimes, there's no way of keeping nature out. Even with a sandpit cover, small animals can make their way into your child's sandpit and try to call it home. Remember to check your child's sandpit at home for the following creatures:
Snakes and lizards
Snakes and lizards in Australia often find a way into sandpits because they are warm, dry and safe places from predators higher up on the food chain. In some cases, they seek our sandpits to lay their eggs because the sand makes a warm environment and the perfect spot for a nest.
Spiders
Similar to our snakes and lizards, the spiders of Australia find children's sandpits a glorious spot to set up basecamp as they can catch any gnats and bugs nearby while staying out of the rain and away from hungry birdlife.
Let's face it, eating things (even sand) is a universal rite of passage. It's something that's a part of everyone's childhood because it's how children explore the world around them. Sand, even when washed, often contains bacteria and faecal material. But, overall, the risk of our children getting sick from eating sand is relatively low, according to Dr Michael Dickinson, a paediatrician and the former president of the Canadian Paediatric Society. The best thing you can do as a parent or guardian is discourage it and keep your child's sandpit and sand clean. Generally speaking, we recommend replacing your child's play sand annually to keep it safe and clean. You can opt to change your child's sand more frequently; it depends on how often it's played with, whether you allow food in the sandpit, and the type of activities your child likes.
Yes! Our flat pack cubby homes with sandpits come with a range of fun and exciting accessories for playtime.
