They TOTALLY dig this!!

I was on Pinterest last night. 

I'm sure you are thinking..."uh, oh". 

Yep- a project was born. The good news is that it wasn't too hard to put together. The boys helped and they were so excited to play with the finished products. 

We made a run to the Dollar Tree, Joann's and Walmart for our supplies in between soccer and football games. We bought the following:

Small rocks and pebbles

Assorted colored sand

Large and small Craft sticks

Glass rocks

Pipe cleaners

Colanders

Sifting tools, cups, tongs, scoops

Assorted colored Pony beads

Pieces of "driftwood"

We are also using construction vehicles, farm toys, ocean animals, army men and large stacking tubs. 

The construction site was the first kit assembled. Jake immediately claimed this one and set to work building and scooping rocks. 

Andy was with me today and we decided to make a kit for his army men. He loved playing with these and setting up bases. He had black and tan sand, driftwood and large craft sticks. He set to work building a fort and sifting sand. 

Then we dumped a ton of pony beads in a container. He had a mini whisk, tongs, mini cups for sorting and scoops. Andy switched to this box and Noah jumped in on the army men. Andy sorted and sifted and played.  At one point, he dumped half the container over accidentally. Everyone helped pick them up, so he was back to playing in minutes. 

We found all sorts of cool digging and sifting and sorting tools today at the dollar tree. 

The last kit we made tonight was an ocean/beach kit. We had sand, glass rocks (our ocean water), large pebbles, driftwood and marine animals. Jake had a blast with this one and used the tongs to pick up the glass pebbles. He sifted the sand and moved the big pieces around. 

We got over two hours of play in with these kits tonight. My goal was some new activities that would be educational and fun. I also want Jake to work on fine motor skills!  The results surpassed my expectations and definitely deterred any screen time tonight!!

We have another kit to assemble with farm items, one with fall sensory items and one with puff balls, pipe cleaners and colanders. I am looking forward to a lazy Sunday afternoon of play!