Magic Sand Empire Builder STEM

This was my first quarantine impulse BUY ALL THE ACTIVITIES purchase. Kinetic sand. I mean, who hasn't played with kinetic sand? Its freakin' awesome. And this is a TON of sand for an awesome price. I was looking at smaller 1lb and 2lb packages for nearly as much as figured - what the heck! Go big or go home.

So, ideally, I was going to dump all of the sand into one of those long totes that are made to slide under a bed. I figured that would serve two purposes: 1) storage for the sand and sand accessories and 2) a nice, large play area that would somewhat contain any mess.

I never bought said tote. Got excited to give it to the boys and ended up dumping two bags into a bin for one kiddo, and the remaining bag into a different bin for the other kiddo. It still works. They are able to play happily next to each other while avoiding the never-ending bickering while playing too close to each other.

I was excited to see that the sand comes with the little baggy of extras. Teeny little castles and pyramids to play with.

This stuff is great. Any mess is easily vacuumed up. At 3 and 6, my boys don't really make too much of a mess out of the stuff. They love it. It keeps them entertained for a LONG time.

Great fun for the whole family! The texture is so interesting and no one can help but put their hands in it as they walk by. When it is dumped from the package it oozes out but yet it is dry-so cool! I like that a tray is included to contain the sand but I certainly would not recommend for the tray to be used as the sand box or you will have a complete mess. A 13x9 inch pan or similar sized container works well, especially if it has an attachable lid and would be able to hold the molds as well when not in use. The molds that came with it are unique and fun. The sand holds its shape well and my little ones love to destroy their sandcastles so luckily making one is super easy! The sand wipes from hands quite easily but it seems to always require a handwashing to get every bit of the sand off. For little ones this does get so messy so a plastic tablecloth may be in order to save as much of it as you can when playtime is over. Even I cannot seem to use it without getting at least a little on the table. So far, we have not noticed any dye leftover from the blue sand coloring, and this is after my 2 year old wiped her hands on our newly painted white wall-whew! Truly, the paint had barely dried. I love the price compared to other kinetic sand. This is going to be my affordable Christmas present this year to all of my nieces and nephews, and more for us as well.

I had not idea what this stuff was before we got it. It acts like wet sand at the beach, in that you can clump it together and make sand castles. But its not wet at all. The little molds that come with it are fun, but you can use so many other things to make shapes, and it holds together pretty well. Unavoidably, the sand gets everywhere with little kids playing with it. But it sticks to itself well enough that you can gather it up well enough to put back into a container. As long as the floor is not too dirty. Otherwise, it sweeps up really well, better than dirt or regular sand. Its a little pricey, but a lot of fun.

National Geographic gets bonus points for using molds of famous structures - for example, Taj Majal, pyramids at Giza, and Chichen Itza. I do wish they would identify the structures on the packaging, because I didn’t even notice at first!

Let’s face it - sand in your house WILL be messy no matter what. Yes, we have to vacuum after, but it NEVER stained the upholstered seat of my son’s chair. It vacuums right up.

It definitely sticks to my son’s hands but washes right off. When his hands are particularly clammy, the color remains a little between his fingers, but it comes off after one or two hand washes. My son says he likes it “because it’s softer than the sand in the blue box. It’s much smoother and less sticky in my opinion.

Overall, I recommend this.

Very hard and dry feeling when you first open the bag but do not add water. Yes, it will feel like a dry brick. Fluff it up with your hand and let it sit and it does get soft and fluffy just like the images. Did not stain hands or anything else unless you use wet hands or get the sand wet. We squeezed it and smashed it into cookie cutter molds and never had any stains and it made the most gorgeous molded pieces.