Conference moira::parenting

    Brian and Neil have a wooden sandbox that their Dad made for them.  It
    really wasn't too hard.  It's just got wooden sides (it's about 8 feet
    by 5 feet) and wooden triangular seats in the corners.  The cover is
    just a wooden frame with screen nailed to it.
    
                                           Tracy

    
    One thing about sand - I read that some commercial sand could
    have asbestos in it and it is better to get real sand from
    a beach, etc. If the sand makes lots of dust it is not good.
    
    

See Parenting_V3, note 899 for a lot of suggestions.  If you don't know how to 
access V3, see note 9.21.

The tools necessary for building a sandbox are hammer, nails, and saw.  A hand 
saw will do, but a circular saw makes the cutting a lot easier.  These are 
three tools that (IMO) should be in most households anyway.  All are easy to 
use, but the circular saw should be used with great care.  Even if you get 
very exotic and use screws, the screwdriver and drill are also tools that 
you'd want to have around the household anyway.

Clay

See also SERENA::HOME_WORK note 1857.

    You can purchase "play sand" at Toys R Us and Child World.  It's
    approximately $3-4 for a 50lb bag  - the average sand box takes about 4
    bags of sand.  The sand is abestos fee beach sand - pure and clean. 
    
    We have the turtle sand box - my husband drilled holes in the cover and
    the base on both sides ... he then inserted bungie rope --- when not
    in use we tie the cover to the base (keeps the wind from blowing it
    off).  
    
    We also keep the sand box on our deck - for supervision, as well as any
    stray animals ... the last thing you need are tics or fleas in the sand
    box.  We bought one of those small beach unbrellas ... the kind with a
    clamp on it.  We clamp it on the rail of the deck just above the sand
    box.  We do get beach sand on the deck ...but nothing a broom and
    dustpan can't take care of.
    
    K

    In addition to the "turtle" sandbox, Little Tikes has a larger, square
    sandbox with a cover.   (Ours in blue and orange; I think the newer
    one has a different color 'scheme'.)  It has four "seats" built into
    the corners.  We bought ours used and have been very happy with
    it.
    
    -Tracy
    

    I'll second the suggestion to check out the HOME_WORK notes. There's
    a lengthy discussion of sandboxes with lots of useful information.
    
    As far as personal experience, I built a small sandbox last year for 
    Nick using some surplus materials I had lying around the yard/house.
    I used P/T 2x8's (leftover from a deck project) for the sides, bolted
    together with 2 lag bolts (again, deck leftovers) per corner, lined the
    box with an old shower curtain wrapped over the tops of the wood and
    stapled to the outsides (to protect against splinters) and poked small
    holes in the bottom for drainage. I built it to be approx 4-ft per
    side, since I had a piece of 4'x4' galvanized sheet metal (leftover
    from the removal of an old woodstove) to use as a fitted cover.
    Took me less than an hour to build, and the only cost was buying the
    sand. 
    
    The sand was my only mistake, by the way. Trying to avoid a long
    ride to a toystore with 12 bags of sand in my car, I bought some at a
    local hardware store/garden center. The sand turned out to be a lot
    courser than what you can buy at ChildWorld, etc., and I'm not happy
    with it. This year I plan to add a few bags of 'true' playsand from 
    CW or Toys-r-Us and get a better consistency. (BTW, our daycare center
    built a huge indoor sandbox using this kind of sand and they find it
    to be too 'dusty'. maybe I'll swap some of mine for some of their's ;^) 
    
    Good luck...

    2 interestings.
    
    1 fyi...
    I've seen a rather expensive (considering it's just a playtoy)
    sandbox/little pool.  Ya must have seen these.  It looks like a boat
    and can be used as a sand box or pool.  I've even seen a larger one
    that has both.  The front has a boat steering wheel and the whole thing
    looks like a small fishermans boat.
    
    2 fyi...
    One of the daycare's in the area have an indoor sandbox and use WHITE
    RICE instead of sand at all.  They claim the kids can't tell the
    difference and it's alot less messy (couln't be fun then right? ;-)
    My kids don't go there so I can't vouch for sure, but thought it was an
    interesting option for an indoor one.  They also claim to never have
    any problems like insects eating it or things of that nature.
    
    (And if your REALLLY hungry just add boiling water and VOILA'   :-) 
    :-)  :-)
    
    Steve

    We hired a contractor and his crew to do some maintenance work
    on our house and asked him to build a sandbox for our daughter
    as part of the job.  They did a great job. The sandbox is large
    (8x6) and they filled it with sand from a local sandpit. A blue
    tarp is attached on one side for a cover. They completed it 
    in a few hours. If my husband and I had done it, it would have
    taken weeks - we are not handy with tools! I agree that the toy
    store sandboxes are too small. You can order large ones like we 
    have from catalogues for playground equipment. The plastic pool
    idea is a good one, although it might still be on the small side.
    I would worry efficient drainage even with holes in the bottom.
    
    
    -Alice

A tidbit of info ...

Be careful about the sand you put in your kid's sandbox!  Some sand is
chemically treated!  (A friend warned me about this just prior to our trip
to the local sandpit.)

We bought bags of "untreated" sand (made especially for "children") at the
local Agway store.  It says right on the bag "safe for children".  I think it
was $3'ish a bag and Juli's box took 3 bags.

In fact, I chucked when I bought it ... it had a beach scene on the bag and
was proud to say it was "sun bleached, fine Bermuda sand" ... well my kid
had best enjoy it as it's the only chance she'll have to "touch" Bermuda
sand!

Dottie

re .10:

Chemically treated for what?

Not sure ... just asked around and people seemed to confirm that you
should be "very careful" about using "just any ole sand" in the kid's sandbox.

I did ask at Agway and they said "of course you need to buy SANDBOX sand --
safe for children"!  (But then again, what else would you expect them to say
when their purpose is to sell the product!)

So, I'm not sure just what is in the "common sand" (or what "could" be in
the common sand) ... we played it "safe".

Dottie

I wonder if this is just a marketing ploy.  Maybe it's like Beech-Nut's (?)
bottled water for babies.

    No, it's not just a marketing ploy.
    
    Sand can be treated with stablizers, similar to concrete, to help it
    pack better.  It also, and more likely in the case of sand from a
    gravel pit, can be treated with sodium chloride or other chemicals to
    minimize the dust.
    
    Also, beach sand is the cleanest.  The day care that my daughter goes
    to has sand in the outdoor play area.  It's not beach sand, and the
    sand stains the clothes.  I don't send her to school with good clothes
    on because I can't always get the yellow stains out of her socks and
    pants.
    
    One other thing that I've seen.  At the day care, the teachers
    sometimes put colored rice (sometimes mixing colors), cornmeal or pasta
    (there are some really interesting shapes and colors available) in the
    water table.  (Instead of water ;-))  One of the benefits -- any of these
    are edible!
    
    -Nancy
    

    But you can't make sand castles with rice and pasta!  ;-)
    We are inheriting a large homemade sandbox from my neices.
    
    I am concerned about Steven's safety, but how many bags of 
    "play" sand @ $3/bag would it take to fill a large sandbox
    (sorry not sure of the dimensions)
    
    Seems pretty expensive to me.  Maybe I should take a ride
    to the beach?
    
    Linda

>    pack better.  It also, and more likely in the case of sand from a
>    gravel pit, can be treated with sodium chloride or other chemicals to
>    minimize the dust.
>    
>    Also, beach sand is the cleanest.  The day care that my daughter goes

Of course, real beach sand has been treated with sodium chloride twice a
day for millenia.  (Do they really wash it to remove the salt?)

	-Neil

    RE: how much sand...
    
    I filled a 4'x8' sandbox about 18"deep and it took me 2000lbs of sand.
    (The sand is about 6" from the top of the 2x8 sides.)
    The "math" here doesn't work out because a cubic yard of sand is about
    2700lbs and is 27� feet (hence a yard) but the insides of this sandbox
    are sloped in slightly and the base was already sand to start with.
    So in other words a cubic yard, that costs about $5 will fill a 4x8
    sandbox from ground to about 10".  (I.E. 2 yards will fill a 8x8 to the
    same height.)
    
    I went to the gravel pit and bought the "masonry" sand, which they
    recommended.  It took 2 trips with a rather large and sturdy used DEC
    equipment cardboard box and only cost $5.  This sand is straight from
    the mill with no chemicals added and is washed.  They said they sell
    tons of this stuff to both homes and local daycare's for this purpose.
    
    Steve

    We built AJ's sandbox out of just the basic "stuff" the year before
    last.  We just bought a 4 x 8' 1/2" plywood sheet, two boards but I'm
    not good with measurements though.  The sides are probably 10 or 12"
    high and 3/4" thick.  We bought them long enough to cut off two square
    which we cut into triangles which became seats on each corner, a few
    nails to hold it all together, some leftover latex house paint and
    voila!  We've got a sandbox for probably something under $15!  
    
    Into this we put (I can't remember right now) either 4 or 6 bags of
    playsand from Toys R Us.  But we'll soon remember since we decided
    yesterday to dump what's in there and get some new sand.
    
    The cover was simply some strapping material.  That's a real thin board
    about the size and consistency of a wooden yard stick.  We simply
    stapled utility strength plastic to it.  The frame is 4 boards into a
    square, plus two more in a cross pattern to stabilize the plastic, and
    hold any water on top from the rain.
    
    He loves it as much today as he did when we built it two years ago.
    
    By the way, my father in law worked for a prominent construction
    company, and my sister inlaw worked in the Toys R Us offices, both
    concur that the toy store sand is the best.  (both were independant
    opinions FWIW.)
    
    Lyn

We used my neighbors plastic sand box one time while we were housesitting.  
They keep it on their patio in the full sun.  I can't take that so we moved
it into a shady part of the yard.  I guess that's an advantage over a 'fixed'
sandbox -- unless you're *really* sure about where you want to use it.

Kyra