The Boy loves craft activities more than anything else; cooking, making, sticking, colouring, etc. As long as it's creating something new from a collection of resources then he's happy, and so am I. It's therapeutic to create items from scratch, and it exercises their little fingers and developes hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills, all important for pre-writing skills. It's also fun!
However, I'm a mum who is beginning to run short of ideas that don't involve pompoms or flour, and when I was asked if I'd like to review a different type of craft activity with my son I was more than happy to give it a go.
Sand Art is a really rather clever, yet simple idea involving adhesive pictures and coloured sand. Each A4 picture is printed onto the top layer of the adhesive card and each section peels off allowing for that section only, and the 'glue' underneath, to be revealed for the sand to be poured on.
Sand Art is created by the marvellous Kids Bee Happy and is an easy and fun activity. We used the lid of a plastic box as a tray to catch any sand and reduce the mess factor, but in all fairness it's a relatively clean activity anyway. No icky-sticky glue needs squeezing out, the sand pours out from tiny holed bottles and everything is very controlled, even with an eager two year old boy. And because only one section is revealed at a time, the 'opportunity' to get the wrong colours in the wrong section is minimal.
In the home kits, there are two pictures, each with a colour guide and ten small tubes of sand. There is also a plastic wallet to seal it in afterwards and a plastic sticky hook so that your child can frame their artwork, without it dropping onto the carpet (I have a laminator so will be putting it through there instead). The sand is very fine and brightly coloured, sticks well to the adhesive card and gives a vibant finish to the picture. The guide pictures are good for children who might need some help with their creativity, but we like to use our imagination and so we abandoned that and used the ten colours in the pack to create our picture.
That there is all his own work! I prised the sections off because it's a little fiddly for him at his age, other than that he chose every colour himself. Which is why there are blue leaves and red coconuts on the tree, because he's two and he can!
It was only halfway through this picture that I twigged about saving the sand: once he'd finished with each colour in turn, I'd empty it into a funnel and pour it back into the pot. This way we have loads more sand for other pictures and craft. We were able to use some of those colours to 'enhance' the appearance of our second Sand Art picture:
He's really enjoyed doing these pictures, and this very morning we've moved onto the more complicated racing car picture which he's really enjoying. We were interrupted by Grandad gate-crashing our fun, but this is the best bit about these pictures, because you only reveal one or two sections at a time, the glue doesn't dry out and it means you can come back to them another time.
Kids Bee Happy also run Sand Art parties which are perfect for birthday parties, or even a wedding or anniversary party (any event where large groups of children need entertaining with a quiet and rewarding activity). With prices starting from £59 and a wide area covered by the franchises, it's a very realistic activity to run alongside a party. I am considering one for The Boy's 3rd birthday in June, and as they are suitable for 3-12 year olds, I'm sure he'd find it rewarding and enjoyable!
We were provided with two packs for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.
