cornmeal beach

M's dad and I are thinking of buying him a sandbox for his first birthday in June.  We don't have many outdoor toys yet (with the exception of M's collection of at least 15 balls but those are in my living room). We also thought it would be a good addition for the new house.  I was a little unsure if he was too young for a sandbox and a little worried that he might eat the sand (because he still puts 90% of things in his mouth).  I decided I wanted to try something safer than a mouthful of sand first.
One of the math programs we use at school includes plans for a rice box for teaching measuring.  I suppose you could really use any rice-like food.  I don't know why I thought of cornmeal but I wanted something a little more sand-like than rice.
My original idea was to put the cornmeal in the foil roaster pan and then put it in the plastic kiddie pool but I couldn't find the pool so we used a plastic table cloth instead.  It worked fine but the pool would have been perfect.  I bought three small packages of cornmeal and only used two.  It filled the roaster pan pretty well.

I tossed in a few measuring cups, a spoon, an Easter egg, and some bath toys.  M didn't really know what to do at first but joined right in after I started.  FYI, I didn't take M's pants off until after we started.  He originally had jeans on and the cornmeal left a yellow dust on them that I'm sure will come right out in the washing machine but I wouldn't leave them on him the next time.  It didn't stain cotton at all and it brushed right off of skin (almost more easily than real sand).

Why we loved cornmeal beach...

baby: putting his feet in, having his feet buried then pulling them out, dumping it out of the pan onto his legs, learning to use the cups to dig

mommy: watching him try to figure out where the toys went when I buried them (he lifted the pan up the first time), sensory exploration, the fact that he didn't try to eat the cornmeal!

M's age when we played: 11 months