BE Good Company My Little Sandbox - Mermaid and Friends, 10 x 10

This sandbox is so cute! I bought this for my 4 and 2 year old daughters, and they love it. My one daughter is an extremely active and intense person and sometimes she gets so intense it's hard to teach her how to calm herself down and pay attention to what she's doing. This activity is very sensory in nature and teaches her how to focus and slow down. I believe they call kids like this "spirited". She can get into more trouble than she needs to if she gets too excited, so having an activity like this to slow her down is helpful. Instead of always making time out a punishment, playing with this serves as a timeout to calm her down. I like that it helps her learn how to slow herself down. My girls can sit for an hour or two every day playing with this and not get bored. I also like that they can take little toys they have at home and use them in their sandbox if they choose. It creates an atmosphere for a lot of imaginative play. The one thing I changed is that I added kinetic sand and threw away the sand that came with the set. The kinetic sand is a lot less messy and is a lot easier to clean up. It doesn't just stick to the floor and spread across your house so that you find sand in every corner of every room. Kinetic sand reminds me of play-doh because it sticks together but it doesn't stick to the carpet or floor. It kind of stays in one place and is easy to vacuum. The kids like the kinetic sand better because it sticks together and they can create things out of it.

Love this! Brilliant blue sand, real tiny shells, a removable mermaid tail made of fabric for the poseable doll. We were first introduced to sand trays at a counselor's office - they are good for people with stress and anxiety, a calming activity that allows the mind to wander while doing something soothing. Our daughter - 6 - loved the boring adult one. We got her a nativity-themed one and she loved that, so we got her this one and the fairy one for the rest of the year. The box it comes in is the box it stores in, with a velcro flap and sides that tuck, made very well and very sturdy. Wish they made the sand tray itself with a sealing lid and carry-handle, for carrying it around without losing sand, but we will deal. The pieces all function and are well-made and the box withstands frequent use. An excellent tool and the only kind on the market that we have seen for kids.

Cute set...but our mermaid came without hair!! My 4 y.o. daughter always enjoys playing in sand. A friend recommended a similar set. We have had it for a few days. It hasn't kept her entertained for long periods of time, but she does keep coming back to it. And, not completely unexpected, but be prepared for a mess to clean up.

My granddaughter loved this she is 6 years old and I got it for her for her Dance recital present. We had to spend the night at a hotel and this kept her so busy. She had a lot of fun with the mat and sand the mermaid is beautiful. It was definitely worth the money I am ordering the Kitty one now.The only issue I had with the product was the way it was shipped, they did not put it in another box and when the product was opened there was a slight chip in the wood on the frame probably from being bounced around. It is too much trouble to return it being a kinda heavy, bulky item so we kept it.

My daughter is 6 years old and loves this toy. The miniature mermaid, seashells, turtle, seahorse and other accessories are totally cute. I can see how parents would be irritated by having sand on the floor (the sand is finer than beach sand). To deal with this I got a cardboard box a couple inches wider than the sandbox on all sides and I cut off the top flaps and shortened the box overall so it is about 2 inches taller than the sandbox (it's easiest to use a box cutter, rather than scissors). With the sandbox in this bigger box, most of the sand that goes astray falls in the cardboard box. (well, this is day one, anyway. we'll see how it goes! I sealed the seams of the carboard box with duct tape but may add a plastic liner to make it easier to retrieve spilled sand and put it back in the sandbox.) I think this will keep my daughter for long periods. It's a keeper!

I read the other reviews of this product here on Amazon and got these sandboxes for my daughters for Christmas. They are 6 & 3. It's a wonderful, lovely toy for the 6 year old. But for the 3 year old...it's my own personal hell. It's not just that the sand gets on the table. It gets on the floor, on the carpet, down the hall, in the bathroom - somehow it's just everywhere. I am not exaggerating. After a Sunday afternoon spent hauling the kitchen rug outside to spray it off, sweeping and mopping the entire upstairs I'm only fairly certain that I got that blue sand picked up. If you have a younger child who is kind of still, like the kind who can sit quietly and color fastidiously for awhile, then I'm sure she'll do fine with this sandbox toy. If she's a regular, clumsy but enthusiastic kid this sand will be all over your entire house. The sandbox goes back into it's regular cardboard box when you aren't playing with it, but there's no real secure lid so if the box gets tipped at all it's Sand City. Please, beware. Think before you buy this toy. It may not be worth all the work it takes to clean up after certain kids.

Absolutely adorable. Fun interactive set. Quality wood box. Wish it had a lid though.

I bought this stupid little thing as a stress reliever at college and I love it. I have it in my room back home now. It's adorable and everyone we had over loved to play with it. It was really relaxing to scoop up the blue sand with the little shovel and pour it in the bucket, or hide the shells and go find them again, and even more amusing to play with after coming home from the bars. I know it's supposed to be a kids toy but I wanted a zen garden that was bigger then the really tiny ones for desks and this fit the bill! I think it's a great gift for a kids, young adults and adults alike!