… Play at the Sand and Water Park?

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Ahhh, the fascination of little kids with sand and water 😉 Here we are at the park with the climbing animals and the training course with exercisers for seniors again… This time, Lyons Cub and his friend Giulianna are trying out the sand and water park. A squeaky pump, operated by some willing adults or older kids, pumps water down a drain and into a puddle in the sand, so that the little kids can build dams and ditches — or, take a shower 😉

After some fun on the pirate ship and the slide, the kids set out to build a “bathtub” and fill it up with water from little buckets:

The different metal drains can be opened and closed with levers. Whoever designed this water playground did a great job! It was nice to see the kids totally immersed in their play. Lyons Cub is usually more of the jumpy kind of guy, but it’s evident that he can concentrate really hard on one thing and stay with it without switching between activities all the time (well, if he wants to). He had a little blue bucket, a shovel, and a rake with him, which I always have in the trunk in case we go to a playground…. He mostly dug with his bare hands, though. Playing with sand is valuable developmentally: It strengthens the tactile sense, the vestibular sense, and the proprioceptive sense (gotcha!! Didn’t know what that meant, either. It’s the awareness of one’s body parts and how they work in the environment).

Turn down your volume in case the squeaky pump creates adverse effects 😉

The “Garden of Generations” for seniors (and everybody, really), by the way, was added to the existing park in 2010 to create a handicap-accessible area for well-feeling and physical training, and it cost EUR 440,000 to build. So while the grandparents enjoy some fitness machines and quiet benches in the sunshine, the older kids are climbing the animal statues or ride the toy helicopter, and the litte ones are splashing and building sand castles around the corner. The parents, meanwhile, can sit on benches in the shade of the trees and watch their kiddos.

This park definitely has some fun activities for every age group, and it is very suitable for parents who don’t have a big sandbox in their yard!! Lyons Cub was unexpectedly polite. He asked: “Mommy, can I jump into our bathtub???” — Of course he could 🙂

I’ll spare you the last picture… (a wise mommy always has clothes for a quick change in her bag!).

After this adventure, when it got late and time for going home, there was a frantic running around of mommies who were looking for their kid’s sand toys 😉