Our first small world box

Until I came accross some pins on Pintrest of small world boxes, I hadn't come across the idea. Other than the standard Fisher Price or Happyland sets, and it reminded me of the miniature gardens I made for a local flower show as a child.

I was inspired by some posts on a couple of  my favourite blogs:
The Imagination Tree
Growing A Jeweled Rose

So i went out & bought a 32L under bed storage box from a local shop, it makes a great box for this project as its big enough for both boys to use & the lid means it can easily be put away for another day.

We used some shiny blue wrapping paper stuck to the base for the sea & some cloud dough for the sand, I was going to use yellow food colouring but i could only get the gel kind locally which I didn't think would work so i ended up using a teaspoon of turmeric, which worked really well & you cant smell it over the baby oil!

I love the look of concentration on Josephs face here

We then added some fish, an old plastic aquarium plant as seaweed, a couple of boats, shells, stones, windmills, cocktail umbrellas, some people (duplo) & a dog.

The boys helped me assemble the box which is why I don't have a pic of it looking tidy. They both enjoyed playing with the box, we did get the usual squabbles about who was playing with what etc. we have since had it out when the boys have been on there own & its been lovely to watch how they use there imagination with out interruption. It also highlighted to me that even though Daniel is 18 months younger he still has a much longer attention span for this type of play than his brother.

I'm not a huge fan of sand & like it to stay at the beech, I seam to find it weeks later even if it was just a visit to a park with a sand pit! Cloud dough makes a very good sand replacement, the boys did get some on the floor but was easy to sweep up, it made more of a mess on the boys clothes but brushing them down & a change of socks was all it took.

I'm currently torn between keeping the beach theme box & changing it out for something new as I have lots of other ideas pinned!

x Jo x