Sandbox!

I (woops, I meant the kids) FINALLY have a sandbox!!!!!  I have been wanting a sandbox for almost four years now, ever since I first read "Heaven on Earth" by Sharifa Oppenheimer.  Oppenheimer describes her lovely sandbox made with fallen tree logs for the borders and she explains how important sand boxes are for children - fun, creative, great sensory experience.  I also wanted a sandbox for First Grade because we will write forms and letters in the sand with sticks and body parts...

Though we live next to the forest, collecting fallen logs would be beyond our current forestry abilities ;)  So, my husband went to the hardware store yesterday (for those in Israel, we go to Nissan in Bet Shemesh - it's a great hardware store in the industrial area of the City) and got three pieces of wood, each 5.7 meters long and 10 cm wide.  Then these were each cut into two 2 meter pieces and one 1.7 meter piece (we saved money doing it this way rather than just asking for all 2 m pieces).  We had four 2 m pieces and four 1.7 m pieces.

To make the sandbox, first we had to saw the 1.7 m pieces a little because they weren't all exactly the same size.  Yoav did really well with the saw.  He tried some sawing about six months ago with a lesser quality saw and didn't like it at all.  We have a better saw now and Jeremy was helping so it went much better!

Next they screwed two of the 1.7 m pieces together, then screwed the other two 1.7 m pieces together.  Yoav got to use his egg beater-style drill we got from Garrett Wade - it's very unique and is great for young kids (fun to be able to drill at all, but the motion of the hand drill is good for fine motor development)!

Then they attached one of the 2m pieces at the end with long wood nails (he tried screws but found it hard to get them all the way in) and one 2m pieces at the other end.

And finally they attached the additional 2m pieces to the previously attached 2m pieces.

We put some old tarp down at the bottom of the box so the sand wouldn't come out the bottom.  I think Sharifa Oppenheimer said you don't need this, but we tried a very small sandbox before without a bottom and the sand mixed up with dirt pretty quickly and got gross.

Next the sand came!  Half a cubic meter of it!  How fun for the boys - a huge truck with a crane came and plopped the bag of sand down right in the middle of the sandbox.  btw, real sand is MUCH easier to find in Israel, since there's so much more sand!  I finally found one thing cheaper in Israel than the US other than produce!

Finally the boys nailed the tarp to the inside of the box.

And emptied the sand into the sandbox - I love that Elie went to get a chair to make this part easier ;)

I'd like to cut it down a little so you can see the beautiful wood frame, but I probably need a power stapler or something to make sure the tarp is well-secured so sand doesn't slip through.  We'll cover it with another tarp at night to keep it free of icky-ness.

Oh, and the best photos of all, of course are those of the kids playing!  Guess which child said repeatedly that he doesn't want a sandbox and he will.not.play.in.a.sandbox!!!!  :)

We recently got a highly recommended book called "Woodworking with Children" by Lester Walker and all my boys are so excited to start doing woodworking projects.  I added weekly woodworking to our weekly schedule for First Grade!  Yoav is particularly excited to build the coaster car, which is the final and most complicated project.  He even has Elie talking about "his" coaster car, which will be red with a horn on it.  Elie today told me I could ride in his coaster car with him which will go "SO FAST!"