Many of us as kids growing up either had a back yard sandbox or had access to one to play in. Remember how much fun it was? Kids just love to play in sand.
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Use a Dirt Box to teach gardening skills and for imaginative play |
Recently after visiting a friend's home who kept her sandbox in a tub for easy storage and seeing how much all the kids loved to play in it, I knew we needed one. I changed ours up a little, though. We have a dirt box for the kids to play in, learn to use gardening tools, and pot up plants instead of a sandbox.
Part of the time the dirt box is used by the kids to pot up plants for me. The other, you guessed it... a box of dirt to play in and let their imaginations run wild. When not helping me, my seven year old uses the dirt box as a mini dirt bike track for his toy motorcycles or a dirt track/mud pit for his monster trucks. My one year old loves to rake it, fill pots, build mud castles and run her brothers dirt bikes through it, mimicking the sounds he makes.
The great thing about this box is that it's very easy to add varying amounts of water and change its use; the kids can even take care of that part for me. If you add too much water, just tilt the box and drain the water out. An added benefit of the box is that you can keep it on the patio and slide it under a chair when not in use. Of course, if you find yourself in a situation when you need to divide or pot something up quickly, you have it handy and the kids know how to help.
Materials Needed:
Potting soil or seed starting soil
Shallow Storage Tub - lid optional
Any toys or plastic tools you desire
Method:
Scoop or pour some soil into the box, let the kids help. We used enough to make the dirt about an inch deep. You want to make sure that you use potting soil or seed starting soil instead of just dirt from the ground. Ordinary ground dirt in most cases will become a hard dry mess, or could have all kinds of nasties in it.
Periodically I add more potting soil, either because we pot up plants, or it is lost due to water drainage. We lost the lid to our tub before it was put into use as a dirt box, so the kids love it when it rains! Instant mud track or lake, depending on the amount of rain we receive.
Note:
If you don't have an potting or seed starting soil around, Walmart sells small bags for less than $1. If you don't see it outside, sometimes it is in by the seed starting mix.
I highly recommend plastic garden tools, because they will most likely get wet. Also, if your kids are anything like mine, sometimes they get thrown and used as sparing tools!
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