Sensory play: Kinetic Sand

I have always wanted to try kinetic sand out, as much for me as for the kids and it’s actually been on our amazon wishlist for a while now, but never actually made its way to us! We were sent the Spinmaster Kinetic Sand Sandcastle kit to try out, and it was a big hit with the kids and both Sam and I too!

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In the box you get: 1lb of sand (ours is purple) and blue moulded tray, three separate molds and a little spade/shovel. I kid you not, the first time I opened the box and set it all up the kids were entertained and sat happily playing with it for an hour. An HOUR! That’s kind of unheard of for them to sit still for that long. I think the fact that we were both playing with it too helped, it just feels so strange and unusual! It looks like its going to be playdoh sort of texture but is lighter than that, and just sort of falls between your fingers like it’s water, only there is no mess at all as it ‘sticks’ to itself, but it’s not sticky at all… it doesn’t stick to anything but itself! Made from 98% sand and 2% polymers its such an amazing sensory material, you can’t help but stick your fingers in it, even when you’re packing it away! It won’t dry out or go hard ever!

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You can make shapes yourself, fill the moulds that come with it, or just play with it, and it kept us all happy for so long, after we got bored of the three moulds which came in the pack we got the kids playdoh box out and experimented with those tools and cutters, then we pretended it was play food with the kids little wooden plates and cups. It really is entertaining stuff! It’s designed for kids ages 3+ but I let Arlo play with it at 19 months under close supervision. The tray means you can keep track of where the sand is going, although if some dos end up being dispersed around the table/floor you can just pick it up with a squished bit of sand and then pick the fluff out! Id be interested in seeing how different colours mix together, I think once mixed they would have to stay mixed, but at least they’d not all go brown like playdoh would!

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My one annoyance with the kit is that there is nothing included in the box to keep the sand in after you’ve opened it, if you keep it in the tray there is no lid so I nabbed a click-to-close lidded sandwich box from the kitchen cupboard and we’re using that. I think I will bumping some more of these kits to the top of the kids Christmas wishlist as its’a favourite for everyone already! Kinetic Sandcastles is just one of the sets that are available on Amazon and at other good toy retailers, there are even gold and silver ones perfect for Christmas gifts!

We were sent this kit for the purpose of this review, all words and opinions are my own.

 

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