Beach baby

We are very lucky to live by the beach, which makes it possible to have a quality play on the sand  often. It is such a rich sensory environment, making each trip full of learning opportunities such as improving balance (crawling/walking on the uneven, soft, sand), coordination (getting lots of proprioceptive feedback and practise moving about and playing with the sand/water), and hand skills (exploring the different textures - sand, water, shells, seaweed, rocks, etc... and of course, building and crushing sand castles). There's lots to see and talk about at the beach too, which can't be a bad thing from a language development perspective either! (boats, planes, waves, dogs, birds, trees, wind, sun, ...) And there are so many games to play: chasing each other, burying and discovering our hands and feet in the sand, 'whizzying', kicking the ball, or just lying back, relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere ...OK - so we are yet to do that lying back, relaxing one - but one can dream :-)