who can recommend a good sandpit?

[allatsea]

Want to get one for the garden, thinking of the wooden Argos one - any recommendations? Plus, how many bags of sand do you need?

I got the sandtable from the ELC - it means your child doesn't have to actually get into it to use it and you can also use it for waterplay. Ds isn't mad for it, but he doesn't really play with toys - but all my friends' toddlers love it. I got one bag of sand with the idea of filling the other half of the table with water, otherwise two bags will do it.

We have the Little Tikes one for my ds. It has a bucket and crane on it. He loves it. We needed 3 bags of sand to fill it. I got it from Toys R Us but it is also in Argos. We also had the one aloha has for her ds, again my ds liked it. He likes the little tikes one now as he has all his diggers, trucks etc it.

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We have the TP boat one - blue at the bottom with 3 seats inside so they don't have to perch on the edge (ours is on concrete) and can be used as a small pool if preferred. For the lid you can get the same thing for the top or go for the green one with a waterway cut out for boats and a bridge over for cars to travel on the road part. Probably more suitable for boys - I have 2 and the adore it. DS2 19 months plays in it for hours. Cost around £14.99 for top and £14.99 for bottom John Lewis delivered it free and also delivered the playsand which was great value and only used one bag/yr.

We bought an expensive one from a catalogue which strongly resembles the one now available for much less in the argos catalogue -- curses!

I'd go for it, it's been brilliant, you can fit several children in at a time, and they do sit on the bench round the edge. Hours of fun, tho' you have to make strict rules about keeping the sand inside.

The downside is you need quite a lot of sand, and it needs to be silver sand, NOT ordinary builder's sand which will stain everything orange. If you go to a builder's merchant and tell them the dimensions of your sandpit they should be able to work out how much you'll need, and they should deliver as well. Get them to bring it right through the house, the bags are incredibly heavy.