Kinetic sand - as much of a mess as I think it will be?

[Onebabyandamadcat]

Starting to think about Christmas presents. My DD4 loves play doh and I'm wondering if she'd like kinetic sand. My question is just how messy is it? The play doh is easy enough to clean up but I've images of my floor covered in coloured sand for ever more. But then I think it seems quite popular so maybe it's not too bad? Any experienced parents that can advise?

Having worked in childcare and having 4 of my own I’d say kinetic sand is better than play dough. It can easily be swept up, compared to play dough that gets stuck in the carpet!

It is really fun and lasts longer than play doh. We have hard floors and if it gets under chairs or scratches them when you move the chairs. But it is much easier to Hoover up! It you can handle playdoh and have a tiled floor, it's a good bet I would say!

It isn't too bad as it sticks to itself. You can collect fallen grains by picking them up with larger pieces. Much tidier than regular sand.

It's fine, quite like it. No issues here. Except they mix it faster than play dough into a big splurge. Sticks together no different to play dough.

Water beads are not fine. Especially when they get all over the grass because then they expand and it looks like ailiens have landed.

It's pretty easy to clean up. We use ours on a plastic sheet on the kitchen floor and store it away in the box afterwards. The sand sticks together so you can grab a bit and sweep up the bits using other sand.

Ah thank you I hadn't considered it sticks to itself. We have tiled floors so it doesn't sound too bad. I shall investigate more

We have tiled floors and use it in a mat. The sand itself is pretty easy to clean up but if it gets on the tiled floor or makes it very slippery, I’ve skated across the kitchen a few times!

We use it on a tray it’s really easy to tidy up!

It's great unless you have a very fluffy dog that sheds a lot, in which case your sand becomes less kinetic and more black hairy mess.

Definitely fine with tiles. I've always preferred it to playdoh personally. Although I'm not sure if it has the same benefits for fine motor skills as it's quite soft compared to playdoh.

I use it on a tough tray for DD (4), it's easy to hoover up but does make our wooden floor slippery- it's herringbone so it gets in the grooves too. It's easier than paint, play doh, etc to play with and clean up

Also, it doesn't go off like playdoh does so whether it's tightly sealed in a box or not it lasts forever

Yes it’s great, we use in a tray too but it’s great for a 4 yr old . It’s especially good fun if you have moulds they can push it into - the sets often come with some

It's really messy, but fun.

Exactly this. Not at all like fine sand everywhere. My two love it and it’s a really lovely sensory activity if you ever need some calm time!

The scented ice cream parlour kit is a massive hit here (4 and 6)

Hard floors? It’s fine. Carpets? Not a bloody chance!!!!

Kinetic sand is much less messy than playdoh, you can just hoover it up and it doesn't stain anything and it doesn't dry out like playdoh so we can leave it out in a tray for DC to play with for days without bothering to put it away each night. We have a small set of construction vehicles (dumper truck, digger etc) that DC likes playing with in the sand. We only have the sand-coloured stuff so no mixing of colours here.

My son is autistic and only does sensory play so we've done it all for years! I don't find it messy but he sits in a little pod thing. It's quite relaxing to play with. And easy to hoover up

The worst is slime, that's very messy.

Play Doh always 💯

It’s fine. We only use it on a table or on a tray and there’s no mess 🤷‍♀️

It’s much less messy. It sort of droops like cobwebs rather than trickles down like sand so it doesn’t get absolutely everywhere. We love it.

I love the look of the ice cream parlour one but wasn’t sure if all the colours just get mixed together and wreck it?

anyway OP I agree with the others - definitely get some, hours of fun!

Eventually, the colours do all get mixed together. And make sort of a brown colour. But it smells like chocolate (synthetically 😂) and no one seems to mind playing with it like that.

Agree it's easy to manage (and good fun) but I would definitely get the real branded stuff as we had some of the knock-off version and it's nowhere near as good, it went crispy and gritty pretty quickly whereas the official sand looks like it will last forever!