Frugal toddler activity

My 29 month old grandson, Brayden, is with me on Thursdays and Fridays. I'm always looking for inexpensive activities we can do here at home. We have done two in the past two days that he's really enjoyed and I thought I'd share them. Inexpensive Sandbox Your local hardware store (Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace, etc.) undoubtedly sells bags of playground sand for around $2.50 a bag. I got out a under-the-bed plastic storage box with top, and filled it with sand and put it out on my back patio. I dug through kitchen drawers and got plastic spoons, a funnel, different old plastic tubs, and put them in the sandbox. Brayden spent a full 90 minutes playing on his own in that sandbox! While he was in for his nap, I got some little plastic figures and planted them in the sand, and told Brayden he should dig for "treasures". Another full hour of playing by himself! One piece of advice - count the "treasures" before you put them in the sandbox to make sure you retrieve them all. You don't want one of these to go in your child's mouth when you're not looking! Thomas the Train It seems all little kids are train fans, whether it's Thomas or just plain ol' trains. In my back yard, I have two hoses connected together and then connected to the sprinkler. I noticed yesterday when I moved the sprinkler that the hoses formed a nice loopdy-loo kind of circle. I suggested to Brayden that it was a "train track" and with one foot on each side of the hose, we followed it around, making all kinds of great train sounds. The ends of the hose (faucet on one end, sprinkler on the other) were the "stations" and we switched places at each station, taking turns being the engine and the other being the caboose. I can see several toddlers playing this all at the same time. The Sprinkler If you have a little one and you have hot summer days, I'm sure you've already hooked up the Sprinkler and let them at it. What a great time Brayden had running back and forth through the sprinkler! When his interest started to wain a bit, I suggested he get out his "mower" and take it through the "mower wash" -- you could use anything with wheels the child can push or ride. That kept him busy for another 30 minutes or so.