We had great fun making and playing with our very own mini beaches indoors. Perfect for toddlers and big kids alike to enjoy together.
How to make Moon Sand mini beaches
Basic Moon Sand recipe
8 cups of flour
1 cup of baby oil
All you need to do is mix the ingredients together and it’s done.
Playing with our Moon Sand mini beaches
We made three individual beaches, one for each of my children, in the hope that this would help avoid my toddler ruining her brother’s sandcastles, like she does on the real beach. Shoeboxes worked great for the boys and a tray was really handy for my toddler, as she found the box a bit restricting. The tray was a bit messier, but she was happier so it was worth it.
We had planned to take a trip to the beach to collect some pebbles and shells to use with the moon sand, but the good old Irish weather got in the way of this, so we had to think of something else to use in their place. My boys thought their collection of marbles would make excellent pebbles and shells.
Sandcastles are a big favourite for us on a trip down to the beach, so we had to include buckets and spades on our mini beaches. We had a lot of plastic egg shells left over from Easter and these were ideal to use as mini buckets. Yoghurt pots would also work really well. For our pretend spades we used a few spoons from various kitchen and tea sets that we have. To decorate the sandcastles we used a few cocktail umbrellas. You could also make little flags using cocktails sticks and stickers.
The boys wanted to add in a few of their favourite characters from “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” as well and a few sea creatures for added fun. I then buried a few gold toy coins to give it even more of a pirate treasure island feel.
This was a really successful activity for all three of my children. My boys had a good few hours play out of it and my toddler played for a good twenty minutes before she made a grab for one of her brother’s beaches! I did manage to distract her quite quickly with the lure of the dustpan and brush to help tidy up her spilt sand. She really seems to love helping with this household task.
The best thing about making this moon sand is that we can bring it out again and again. Don’t put a lid over it though, as this will make it smell bad. I tend to just throw over a tea towel and keep it out of reach of little hands. My boys are full of ideas on how we can use it next time we bring it out to play. They want to create Dinosaur Land with it and use it when they play with their diggers.
What are your favourite ways to play with Mood Sand?
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Looks like great fun 🙂
Thanks they had a great time!
What a brilliant idea. I may give this a go this summer. Thanks for sharing with the Monday #pinitparty. I have pinned 🙂
Thanks, give it a go it's so easy to set up and they had so much fun.
This is fantastic. We are planning to take a trip to the beach. It'll be my little one's first time in the sand. This might be perfect to kind of get her adjusted and let her play, so she won't have to do that as much at the beach. I'm thinking I'll fill one of her itty bitty toddler blow-ups with it. Thanks for the idea. 🙂
That's a great idea! Enjoy!
School holidays already – wow! I also had no idea you could make home-made sand – that's brilliant! We are definitely going to have a go at this hopefully later this week. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
We have 9 weeks to get though as well!! Lots of arts and crafts planned!! If you do have a go then i d love to hear/see how you got on!
This will be a great idea for the Summer Holidays
Thanks.
Love it, I might try it later this week!
Janine from Encourage Play
Great let me know how you get on!
Aww we love mood sand too, though I first read about it being called cloud dough, though it sounds like the same thing! Whatever it is called, it is great fun and we use it a lot on rainy days – such a great activity for kids!! xx #letkidsbekids
Yes it s the same thing as cloud dough just another name for it. We turned our beaches into diggerland today!
I live near the beach and every after walk I have this feeling that we took all the sand from there as the sand in the house is just A LOT =P Oh and I remember telling you that I am now letting my son play with paints and watercoolor as he can do this outside the house. I will try to post him and his works later today. Hope you can drop by the blog and check it out =) #LetkidsBeKids
That s great news about the paint i ll pop by and have a look!
What a great idea. I love the additions of the little cocktail umbrellas. It looks like such a fun way to play at the beach at home!
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
They ve been having so much fun with the sand as it can be used for so mnay other scenarios as well!
This is such a fabulous idea hun! Perfect if the weather is pants and you need a bit of sunshine inside! Perfect. Thanks so much for linking up with #MMWBH xx
http://www.superbusymum.net
#awww thanks it really was such a cheerful activity we are definitly doing it again soon!
Looks like a great beach, we made moon dough this week but it was very messy, #letkidsbekids Lovinglifewithlittleones.com
Messy=fun for kids though doesn t it!! We made slime today and that was very messy but the kids loved it and luckily i had plenty of time to clean up afterwards!
What a fun small world idea!