Sand has two distinct properties - wet and dry. They both make a great activity game for your toddler.

Wet Sand Play

This can be compacted and moulded into shapes and mounds. Here are some ideas of what you and your toddler can do together with wet sand:

• Just using bare hands she can mound it up, squeeze it between her fingers, and make patterns using her fingers.
• Add some shells to make patterns and pictures. If you collect shells and pebbles next time you are at the beach then you have yourself a free game for your learning toddler.
• Hide the shells and have a treasure hunt.
• Use sticks, stones and leaves to make pictures and patterns. Another free toddler game.
• Hide two of each type of item for a matching treasure hunt. Educational kids toys don't have to be bought, as you will find them all around.
  
• Use a ruler to smooth out the sand.
• Use sticks, rakes and forks to draw lines and patterns on the flattened and smoothed sand.
• You can write his name and other words in the sand too and encourage him to make his own marks. 
• Use Lego bricks and other toys to make imprints in the smooth sand.
• Press a sieve, colander or tea strainer into smooth sand and see what happens.
• Make a roadway and put in toy vehicles to travel along them. Add bricks to make a sand play town.
• Use toy diggers and dump trucks to transfer sand from one part to another.
• Make a landscape and add animal figures.
• Add little people to a sand play landscape. Little people are really good for creating opportunities for language. You and your toddler can create conversations between them. (If you don't have plastic little people you can make them out of pegs).
• Use spoons to fill washed out plastic and tin food containers, pat down, turn upside down and make castles. It is easy to make useful home made toys like these.
• Fill commercial sand moulds and turn them out.
• Use an old toy tea set and have a sand tea party.
• Collect a few stones and twigs with leaves on to make a garden.
• Give him a selection of different sized socks; tiny, small, medium and large. (Keep a collection of old socks as these have so many uses). Can he fill them with sand using his bare hands? Or you could give him a spoon or scoop. Let him notice the different weights of the filled socks. Once filled, he can play with them - stacking, laying end to end. What else can he do with them? Watch him and see.

Dry Sand Play

Dry sand is less versatile than wet sand but it is wonderful to feel it running through fingers or burying toes. Provide containers of all shapes and sizes, along with a sieve or two, some funnels and several scoops and spoons.

• I give a small selection each time, so she is not overwhelmed. One day I will provide small things such as teaspoons and tiny containers....
• Other days we will have large sand buckets, large scoops and a sieve.
• Bottles and funnels and scoops are fun too.
• You can also get commercial sand wheels that are great fun and work best when the sand is dry.
• Fill socks too with dry sand. The outcome is a little different. The filled sock may not be as stable as when he used wet sand. Are they easier to fill?

These activities can be done with any substance that flows freely like salt, dried lentils, bird seed, potting compost not just sand play. Use sieved garden soil for a free game for your children. Though these are not so good if everything goes straight into his mouth.

Apart from filling and pouring activities, your toddler can draw in the sand as another type of sand play.

Put a small amount of sand in a tray (a contrasting coloured tray works best) and smooth out with a ruler or stick. If you don't have any sand use salt for this activity instead.

• Show her how to draw with her fingers, making swirls or dots
• Give her a stick to make marks
• Or a comb or fork
• Or feather, tooth brush or paintbrush
• You can hide all sorts of objects in the dry sand for treasure hunt activities. Use whatever little things you have at home that interest your toddler and you have a free game.

Sand and water play can give hours of educational, imaginative fun activities you can do together. I know you will both make a mess on the floor with spilled sand and water but your toddler will really enjoy helping you clean it all up. It is all part of the activity game to your toddler!

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