The Evolution of a Sand & Water Play Space

In March my husband and I were so excited to begin working on a sand & water table for O. We made our plans based on this sand & water table. I had a great time picking the colors, and it was exciting to put in the rock base for the water side of the table.

BUT then it rained all spring in Houston. And even though we created a cover for the sand side of the table and had drilled drain holes underneath, we just couldn't keep the sand dry - or get it dried out. By August I noticed that the wood under the sand was beginning to buckle and split. UGH! We loved our table, but it was time for a redesign.

I scoured Pinterest for new ideas and ways we could adapt the table we already had. I started finding ideas on creating a sensory path and an outdoor play space, and tried incorporating them with a sand table, but in the end, we decided to just make the whole space into an outdoor sand/water play space.

It was much easier than building another table and only took us a few hours.

We make out the space for the sand and dug down a couple of inches. then we laid out a weed barrier and placed rocks around the edges. (The rocks we took form a raised garden in another part of the yard.) Then we filled the sand area with play sand and the water area with river rocks. My hubby salvaged the pipe and shower head from the old table and mounted it to our fence post. (O's favorite activity is standing under the shower head anyway - even when it was mounted to the other table, he would contort his body to get under the water.)

My main concerns for putting the sand area in the ground are the cat that visits our yard and the ants. I read that mixing cinnamon into the sand will keep the ants out of it. So far it has worked - I have seen them passing across the sand, but not taking up residence. And the play space smells great! As for the cat, I just try to sift over the sand before Ollie starts playing.

In the future I hope to create a music wall on the dance behind the sand area.