Mud Play

[Guest]

Hi, we have a sand pit and a separate 'mud kitchen'. We have just cleaned out the sandpit and filled it with lovely clean sand but several of our children want to move it, handful by handful, bucket by bucket, into the mud kitchen and mud building site area.

 

My question is about builders sand. I have half a huge bag of this just sitting in my garden, left over from a previous building project and I'm wondering whether I could tip it onto the mud to make it more diggable and allow the children to transport it around the muddy area, offering transporting opportunities and maybe saving the nice sand for those children who want to build sandcastles and generally play with it where it is?

 

My manager says she thinks it'a an irritant, much courser than play sand, so I don't want to just dump it there and run into problems with sore hands or have it thrown into someone's eyes, but it is any worse than soil or bark, both of which the children have access to? Would it be ok dug into the soil to make it more diggable?

 

Any advice really appreciated.

[Susan]

I dont know if it would be suitable as you suggest but it is definitely an irritant and can stain badly so its a no no as a replacement in your sand pit and I think I would err on side of caution personally.

[apple]

here, here

would err on caution as it is known to be an irrritant. Could you get in touch with a local tree surgeon or wood yard for sawdust to add to your mud mixtures? We have a mud pie kitchen and as I have a log burner at home I save our sawdust from the logs we cut and split and bring it to nursery so the children can add it to their mixtures.