Create your own moon sand mini-beach at home

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Bring the beach indoors with these moon sand mini beaches
moon sand mini beaches

We had great fun making and playing with our very own mini beaches indoors. Perfect for toddlers and big kids alike to enjoy together.

How to make Moon Sand mini beaches

Basic Moon Sand recipe

8 cups of flour
1 cup of baby oil

All you need to do is mix the ingredients together and it’s done.

 We used a mix of 4 cups plain flour and 4 cups wholemeal flour. This created a really realistic sandy colour.

Playing with our Moon Sand mini beaches

We made three individual beaches, one for each of my children, in the hope that this would help avoid my toddler ruining her brother’s sandcastles, like she does on the real beach. Shoeboxes worked great for the boys and a tray was really handy for my toddler, as she found the box a bit restricting. The tray was a bit messier, but she was happier so it was worth it.

We had planned to take a trip to the beach to collect some pebbles and shells to use with the moon sand, but the good old Irish weather got in the way of this, so we had to think of something else to use in their place. My boys thought their collection of marbles would make excellent pebbles and shells.

playing with a moon sand mini beachplaying with a moon sand mini beach

Sandcastles are a big favourite for us on a trip down to the beach, so we had to include buckets and spades on our mini beaches. We had a lot of plastic egg shells left over from Easter and these were ideal to use as mini buckets. Yoghurt pots would also work really well. For our pretend spades we used a few spoons from various kitchen and tea sets that we have. To decorate the sandcastles we used a few cocktail umbrellas. You could also make little flags using cocktails sticks and stickers.

making sandcastles with moon sandmaking sandcastles with moon sand

The boys wanted to add in a few of their  favourite characters from “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” as well and a few sea creatures for added fun. I then buried a few gold toy coins to give it even more of a pirate treasure island feel.

This was a really successful activity for all three of my children. My boys had a good few hours play out of it and my toddler played for a good twenty minutes before she made a grab for one of her brother’s beaches! I did manage to distract her quite quickly with the lure of the dustpan and brush to help tidy up her spilt sand. She really seems to love helping with this household task.

toddler sweeping up

The best thing about making this moon sand is that we can bring it out again and again. Don’t put a lid over it though, as this will make it smell bad. I tend to just throw over a tea towel and keep it out of reach of little hands. My boys are full of ideas on how we can use it next time we bring it out to play. They want to create Dinosaur Land with it and use it when they play with their diggers.

What are your favourite ways to play with Mood Sand?

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25 thoughts on “Create your own moon sand mini-beach at home”

  1. This is fantastic. We are planning to take a trip to the beach. It'll be my little one's first time in the sand. This might be perfect to kind of get her adjusted and let her play, so she won't have to do that as much at the beach. I'm thinking I'll fill one of her itty bitty toddler blow-ups with it. Thanks for the idea. 🙂

  2. School holidays already – wow! I also had no idea you could make home-made sand – that's brilliant! We are definitely going to have a go at this hopefully later this week. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  3. Aww we love mood sand too, though I first read about it being called cloud dough, though it sounds like the same thing! Whatever it is called, it is great fun and we use it a lot on rainy days – such a great activity for kids!! xx #letkidsbekids

  4. I live near the beach and every after walk I have this feeling that we took all the sand from there as the sand in the house is just A LOT =P Oh and I remember telling you that I am now letting my son play with paints and watercoolor as he can do this outside the house. I will try to post him and his works later today. Hope you can drop by the blog and check it out =) #LetkidsBeKids

  5. What a great idea. I love the additions of the little cocktail umbrellas. It looks like such a fun way to play at the beach at home!
    Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids

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