I set out today to create a fun playsand for my youngest daughter and nephew to play with on the from porch. What I ended up with was not what I was expecting, but it was still fun! I had the kids play with this for awhile before nap time. The result? Peaceful slumber for about 2 hours! Some other great recipes for little ones are Play Dough, Finger Paint, and Bubbles!
What you’ll need:
- 1 cup fine sand
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/3 cup water (perhaps just a bit more)**
- 2 tbsp Fractionated Coconut Oil
- 10 drops essential oils, I chose Calming the Child
What you’ll do:
- Combine sand and corn starch in a large glass bowl
- Add essential oils to coconut oil, stirring well
- Add oils to water, stirring well to combine
- Pour liquide mixture into sand mixture
- Stir well, using a spatula to combine
**If you choose not to use a preservative you will need to store it in the fridge. Optiphen plus is a preservative which reduces the instance of bacterial growth in water-based products. We recommend that a preservative be used in any water-based products that you make at home. This is a great choice since it contains no parabens, no formaldehyde, and are not formaldehyde contributors.
Go wild! Place this in a large, shallow container with toy cars, trucks and scoops. The kids had lots of fun just scooping and moving it around with the vehicles. WARNING: this does and will make a mess. I suggest doing it outside, like we did or placing a large flat sheet down to cover the area your kids are playing it. This will save you tons of clean up time and allow you to reuse the sand later. We stored ours in a quart zip top baggie. If you find that it’s too dry the next time you want to use it, add a tsp of water and mix well.
*In the interest of full disclosure: You know we all have those projects that show such promise, yet don’t quite live up to our expectations. This was one of those projects for me! I had hopes of indoor sand castles and fun play with the toddlers! While not a total failure, this sand needs something else. I couldn’t quite figure out what, but it doesn’t hold together that well. It honestly didn’t matter – the kiddos still had a blast playing with it and I got quite a workout sweeping it up! They spent a good hour driving trucks through it, then moved onto scooping into buckets, cups and other containers. Totally worth the 2 hours of quiet play on the front porch on a rainy day! Bonus, it smells lovely and the toddlers had a nice nap afterwards!
I hope your kids enjoy playing with this project as much as mine! Keep your broom or vacuum handy and get a little dirty! As always, be in touch if you have questions or concerns! Email us at aromatherapist@planttherapy.com
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