K is for Kinetic Sand

Welcome to my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge for 2019! The A to Z Challenge is a blogging event held each April. Bloggers create posts from A to Z beginning on April 1st and ending on April 30th. There is a post scheduled for each day of the month (except for Sundays) with each day corresponding to a sequential letter of the alphabet.

We're talking toddler for this year's A to Z. It's all those wonderful (sometimes messy) things we do to keep our kids occupied and maybe minimize the amount of chaos in the every day.

Today's letter is K. K is for Kinetic Sand! Kinetic sand is like upgraded Playdoh. It mimics sand and has a doughy consistency, but doesn't dry out and doesn't stick to other materials. It's moldable and reusable.

In the case of this post though, we're talking about all things dough like.

When you start this kind of play with a toddler, you have to take into account that their first move is typically to shove anything new straight into their little mouths. So...at our house we introduced squishy sandish play by starting with Moon Sand.

Moon Sand is simply a mixture of flour and vegetable oil that is mixed together in an 8:1 ratio. It clumps together when squeezed, but then can be broken back apart into fine granules. Plus...it's safe (though disgusting) to eat. Other recipes I've seen have been made using baby oil or coconut oil. We tried the coconut oil and it was a disaster. Plain old canola oil though...worked like magic. And you can make it even more fun by adding a couple of drops of food dye.

The Boy just enjoyed squishing it between his fingers, making it into balls, and smashing it on his tray. (He also clearly snacked on it a little.)

Store it in a Ziploc bag or a Tupperware container and you can go back to it for use again and again. Plan on stripping the younger ones down or changing their clothes after, because they will go free for all with this stuff. We just went for bathtub play following this activity, so the fun just shifted gears. Also, either plan on sweeping or vacuuming afterward or lay down some plastic sheeting to keep the mess off the floor.

The older sets can graduate to the fancier materials once you can trust them not to chow down on everything you put in front of them. We have PlayDoh that we just got to make available to the 2-year-old and he now has some actual kinetic sand with molds that he got for his birthday. It's a festival of fun squishy stuff over here.

With the more advanced materials, you can continue tactile play and shape play, but you can also incorporate some educational techniques. Learn to roll it into "snakes" and then cut them with safety scissors. Make round balls in different colors and then stick dry spaghetti into them for counting practice. Use the standing spaghetti to build penne towers or Froot Loop towers on the dough. The possibilities are seriously limitless. It's a fun free-for-all. And really, the kiddos just like stuff that feels goopy and that they can squish and smash around. (And occasionally sample as food.)

Are you an A to Z Blogger too? Leave me a comment so I can repay the visit.

Not an A to Z Blogger, but love the idea? Go here to see what other fun you can find in the challenge.

Miss a prior 2016 A to Z post? Find your missing link down below...

    A is for ASL                                   B is for Bubbles                 C is for Counting
    D is for Dot                                   E is for Exercise                 F is for Fort
    G is for Go Fish                             H is for Helping                 I is for Indoor Car Wash
    J is for Jigsaw