Little Tikes Sand and water table, outdoor toy essential!
Summer, and outdoor fun for the children is on my mind! We have recently moved, and the children were treated to a fabulous sand table from Little Tikes. We love Little Tikes toys, and the children already own the play house, climbing frame and the amazing pirate ship water table. Why do we like Little Tikes so much? They are really well made, and all the toys we own have lasted brilliantly even when we’ve left them out in all weather!
The Builders bay sand and water table comes complete with vehicles, a digger arm and a brilliant parasol to protect your children from the sun while they play. The water side of the table has a bit to turn to make a current so the boats will go around on their own, but the children were all keen to try out the digger arm first!
We had 5 children playing around the table, aged between 20 months and 7 years. Each of the children loved digging in the sand, driving the trucks through the sand, and dumping the sand into the water side of the table.. Yes.. I had’t really thought about the possibility of the children doing that! Quickly the sand ended up in the water and the water in the sand, all the children were VERY sandy, but very happy too! I did cringe, and want to shout “STOP!!” but reminded myself that when I was 7, I would have done EXACTLY the same thing! Although they in my mind created a mess, really their messy play was very clean!
When they finished with their sandy game, I was able to scoop the sand from the water back into the sand side, then empty the water out using the bung which is hidden underneath the table. It was then ready to be refilled with fresh water, ready for a new game.
I love the fact that the table is big enough for lots of children to play around it comfortably, and that it comes equipped with two lids to keep the contents of each side of the table clean. It did require a little bit of building, e.g. a couple of screws to hold bits in place, but nothing which took very long. It’s a toy which the children will get lots of use out of whatever the weather, and would work well in a very small garden or a substantial garden where you are trying to create a child friendly corner.
A friend asked if as the table is themed, did it limit the play value to just the “builders stage”. I can honestly say that the children have played various games with the sand table, and experimented with building mini dams etc. The digger arm has been used as a “monster arm” and it’s also been excluded from play while they used buckets and spades to build traditional sandcastles – which was quite funny to see! So, if you’re looking for tons of play value in a garden toy, do have a look a the fabulous sand and water tables from Little Tikes, we love them!
