We visited Nana and Grandad’s house last week and luckily the rain stopped for a bit. We grabbed the opportunity to get out in their garden. The children loved running round the garden to burn off that energy which had built up over a wet half term. Their garden is very large, so this was fantastic for them.
They investigated the bottom of the field, the views, the bushes. They love running in Nana and Grandad’s garden, it’s just one big open space…..a childs playground! 
After all that running, they spied the sandpit, which we hadn’t played with for a long time. The lid came off and the children dived in (well, not literally)! They dug around, they transferred sand from one place to another. They filled buckets, they attempted to make sand castles. They found buried treasure and generally had loads of fun exploring the sand for themselves.
As expected a lot of the sand spilled out onto the ground, but instead of just scooping it straight back up, BB started playing with it there, by piling it up and making sand pies etc. As soon as the girls saw what BB was doing, of course they wanted to join in too, hence a large proportion of sand ended up outside the sand pit!
With the sand on the ground and patted down, it made the perfect conditions for sand drawing. Boo drew lots of pictures in the sand. I thought her alien was fantastic! 
Next, Boo asked me to write her name, so I grabbed the opportunity for some writing practice with the children. We tried writing letters and names. It was very easy for the children to write in the sand. They enjoyed using the different medium for writing, rather than the usual pen and paper. It was definitely good fun.
I think with children, they will learn when they want to learn, not when you want to teach them. If they are exploring, asking and questioning, you can grab the opportunity to show them and guide them. This works for us, the kids felt inspired to learn some letters, therefore, they loved their practice writing session in the sand. It also meant we all had a lovely afternoon in the garden together, perfect!