Sand, soap and smiles

A friend visited us recently and we were on the topic of playgrounds when he said "Do you know there are no more sand playgrounds in Singapore?"

Which kind of made my heart sink a little.

I vividly recall my neighbourhood playground in the past and how there used to be sand, swings and a dragon structure for you to climb. Despite that fact that I fell from that fateful dragon when I was in primary school and left an eternal scar on my knee, there was something about the soft, smooth sand that tugged at my heart.

Something that rubber mats will never replace. Even though I understand that demolition of the 'old' playgrounds is for the safety of the children.

Thankfully we still have the beaches and parks, it's just that we won't be able to find sand just below our block.

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Having been reminded of that, Angel and I decided to indulge in more sand activities this week.

My girl has never been the princess when it comes to outdoor play and she loves to get her hands on everything from sand, soil, rocks to even insects like snails and ladybirds. 

I see the kids here in Sweden having absolute freedom when it comes to the playground. They jump on swings, they climb onto roofs and they roll about in the sand. However, Asian parents like myself are a little more apprehensive about the danger and hygiene, so we tend to say "No" more often and subconsciously set limitations for our child.

Sometimes, what mums should do is to stop saying "Eeew, that's so dirty!" or "Arghh, don't touch that, got germ!" Yes, just don't think about it and focus on how fun it can be!

One afternoon, I brought Angel to our backyard that is equipped with four swings, a barbeque area and yes, plenty of sand.

We had our sandcastle making tools and for that couple of hours, I allowed her to touch, squeeze, lay, play, jump, roll and everything else in the sand except to eat it.

Was she delighted? You bet.

I started using our moulds to make shapes in the sand while my little destroyer decided it was fun to use her spade and flatten them right after I made them. Grrrr. I taught her to use wet sand instead of dry sand to make a sandcastle. We went around picking up small stones for the fortress and spent a long time digging, scooping and filling up our pail with sand. Once, twice, thrice.

Eventually, she decided to attempt making a castle on her own so I had the luxury of lazing in the sand to admire the blue skies while feeling my loved ones right beside me and inside me.

A simple, and rather hideous looking, sandcastle adorned with leaves and rocks had the magic to make her smile as if she was looking at the most majestic castle in the world.

Kids. They are really that easy to please.

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To double up the fun, we ended off the afternoon with another of Angel's favourite pastime - Bubble blowing.

We had this battery-operated gun with a fan that was supposed to blow out dozens of bubbles. But didn't.





So in the end, Angel had to manually blow out the bubbles which she didn't mind in the least. She was so elated to see each and every bubble that she even jumped up and down, pointed to them when they were high up in the sky, waved frantically and shouted "Bye bye Bubble!"





It didn't matter that both of us returned home all sandy and dirty. Or that Angel half peed in her pants. Or that my big belly made me exhausted from all the squatting, digging and playing. 

In fact, I just wished we had done this more often.

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