Alternative to sand?

[JJA]

Hi,

I'm looking for an alternative to sand in our outdoor area. It has been resurfaced and using sand can deteriorate the surface, not to mention it's been a bu88er to sweep up!

(NB: We have a large indoor play area where the children have access to sand/water etc continuously but our outdoor area is a walk away from our building and therefore is timetabled rather than free-flow.)

 

I was wondering about having some kind of gravel pit, using may be pea-shingle or similar...Has anyone out there used anything like this and can recommend a favourite?

 

Many thanks,

Jo

[Tinahs]

I would also be interested in ideas for alternatives to sand. We have had an ongoing problem of sand getting all over the ground outside and making our play area very slippy. Last summer we built a very large sandpit thinking the children could transport the sand inside the sandpit and would no longer spread it over the rest of the play area. In fact it hasn't solved the problem one bit and we now have an added problem that, now the children can get into the sand pit, they often dig quite vigorously and we have had lots of incidents of sand being unintentionally thrown over other children. I will follow this with interest as I'd love to find a good alternative to sand!

[finleysmaid]

hi Jo are you talking about filling a 'pit' or a container of some sort?

[Fredbear]

Hi, Pen Green had a lovely gravelled area, with opportunities for children to use with pulleys, containers and a water wheel, when I had the opportunity to visit them. Depends on the space and age of children I guess.

[JJA]

Ooh! I'll see if I can find a picture of the Penn Green one...

 

I'm thinking not a container. Our EY development workers created a 'best practice' room and outside area at our local centre and I was quite inspired by a far more 'free' approach with a sand 'area', demarked using logs and large pebbles/rocks. As I've said, sand wouldn't work for us, but I am picturing the same thing but using gravel or alternative.