Messy play: Edible sand!

I am a huge fan of messy play. Babies and children learn best through play, and getting messy allows them to explore with all of their senses and contributes enormously to their cognitive and physical development. There is nothing like messy play to foster your child’s curiosity and imagination.

How to make edible sand

Edible sand is one of my all time favorite messy play ideas. It’s suitable from 6 months, and kids of all ages love it! I tried out a few different recipes I found online, but they all turned out either too dry which made it impossible to mould, or too sticky which made the clean-up a nightmare! After a little trial and error, I created the perfect edible sand: it feels like dry sand, but still forms perfect sandcastles! It is SO quick and easy to make, and doesn’t contain any nasty ingredients, so it is perfectly safe for your little one to eat, should they wish.

The sand contains just three ingredients: Porridge oats, bread, and water!

I used a ratio of 500g of oats to 1 slice of bread and 1tsp of water. All you have to do is chuck everything into a food processor or blender and whiz it up.

The first few times I made this, I used an old plastic storage box for the sand which my baby could sit in. This worked perfectly until he found his feet and wanted to move about more, so I then picked up a tuff spot instead which gives the kids a lot more room to play and get creative, and also does a better job of containing the mess!

So much fun!

My son likes to bring just about every toy car, tractor and digger he has into the ‘sand pit’. It gets absolutely everywhere! But the great thing is, it just hoovers straight off the toys and the floor so the clean up is a breeze! What’s left over can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge and keeps for about a week or so.

You can also replace the water with a few drops of food colouring to create multi-coloured sand, which my daughter loves!

Watch this space for more messy play ideas!

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