This is such a good garden game for children. It’s especially good when the sun is starting to drop. You need so few pieces of equipment, and you’ll already have them to hand in the house or garden.
The evenings have been much warmer than the mornings, here, like the sun really needed the whole day to get going, which is a bit late for sleepy Mr James. However, this is a fun activity that you can play in the garden, whatever the weather – just wrap up warmly if it’s cold outdoors, and wear less if it’s hot!
James is loving his sand pit right now, especially since I gave him the scoop from a tub of Miofresh. He loves making the “tiny circle sandcastles” and carries them really carefully. He carries them around the garden, and occasionally into the house. But mostly he’s just excited by them.
So, he was happily playing with his scoop in the sand and I got on with making him “a river”. I used Bacofoil, tearing a longish strip off, and folding up the edges before filling it with water.
It was a little bit windy, so I put a sprinkling of sand along the bottom to hold the foil still before the water got in. An interesting conversation about sand banks ensued – boats might get stuck on them if they’re too big, don’cha know?
Then James was free to play with his new river! Good fun, and pretty simple!
Apparently even steam rollers enjoy a dip in the river from time to time. You can see that the foil didn’t hold the water completely. So don’t try this if you want the floor to be dry afterwards. Additionally, James trampled the edges in a few places so the water escaped that way, too.
This foil river was a nice activity to try, and made a bit of a change from those teeny tiny sandcastles for a while!
This looks great fun, and so simple too
Yep, really easy! Good old Pinterest!
This looks like a lot of hours of summer fun. Might have to give it a whirl! Can’t help thinking the tinfoil brands should get in on the act – it’d be a fab way of working out which one has the strongest foil!
I thought bacofoil might’ve been the best from the off, so, I agree! Maybe we can run foil river tests this summer – do report back with your findings!
What a great idea, I bet James enjoyed his ‘river’ in the garden. Sand and water play are great way to get them outside doing some sensory activities. It looks like you had a great opportunity for a little bit of learning through play with the sand bank conversation too! I bet James can’t wait to have another chance to have a river in his garden. Thanks for linking up with Country Kids.
Yes, he’s asked every day since for it, and of course those little sand castles are still an enormous hit!
Lovely idea – I might buy my kids a roll of foil each from Aldi this Summer and see if they can ‘design’ their own rivers in the garden. I’m sure all sorts will be thrown in ours too x
Fabulous! See if you can do the Tyne, Wear and Tees for the three big North East rivers!
I’ve seen this on Pinterest too and it’s on our list of summer activities. It looks like he had great fun playing with the river! 🙂 x
Pinterest is great for activities of all kinds, but I’ve seen some fab summer things to do.
Aww pinterest is really amazing place to find ideas like this! I was thinking we can do this too here as my son loves to play with water and I let him especially when its hot =) #countrykids
This is a pretty nice way to cool down! Hope your son enjoys it too.
What a fun activity! I have seen this on pinterest but have not tried it.
It’s definitely a popular pin over there! Give it a whirl Keitha!
Popping over from #toddlerapprovedtuesday. What a brilliant idea. So simple but great fun to create a river. Love that it just needs 2 materials – foil and water.
A great idea and one I will be trying soon.
I hope you enjoy it!
Great idea, looks like he’s really enjoying it, I am sure my Monkey would as well – thank you for sharing #toddlerapprovedtuesday xx
This looks a lot of fun I’m going to be doing this with my little one if the the sun comes out again! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
Thanks for linking up to #Whatevertheweather with your fab tinfoil river. 🙂 xx
I cannot describe how much I love this idea!! It’s now down on our cousin club list of things to do over the summer. Thanks so much for sharing #toddlerapprovedtuesday x
What a cute idea. Nothing’s better than a pinterest post, except for a post proving that the pinterest post is reproducible. Thank you for sharing. #WhatevertheWeather
I have a whole board of Pinterest pins I’ve tried; I agree, it’s good to know they work!
This looks AMAZING! Hours of garden fun. I’ve been looking for some daddy/daughter messy play ideas for when i’m working and my other half has Evie. He is rubbish at coming up with play ideas. This sounds like something he’d love to try with her. 😀 Thank you so much for linking up to #whatevertheweather I love inexpensive, creative ideas like this. x