When do they outgrow a sandbox?

My 4 yr old ds and 17 month old dd love the sandbox! I think ds will continue to use it for quite a while.. so I think it's a good investment.
If you're not sure how much use you will get out of it, maybe you could ask for one on freecycle?

My ds will be 5 in August and still enjoys sand BUT he plays with it in very stereotypical boy fashion, using it as part of construction vehicle play. We don't have a sandbox. I just pour a pile on the walkway in the backyard. Sometimes, ds has me fill up his wagon which makes a nice portable sandtable. You could scavange an old dresser drawer (I'm always seeing those on curbs) to use as a sandbox if you aren't sure about your dd having a continued interest. Then you would just need a piece of plywood or something to keep cats from using it as a litter box. You could use somekind of rubbermaid container. I've also used a super small inflatable pool as a sandbox. It was from the dollar store and the right size to be covered with a trashcan lid (except I had an oversized frisbee that I used). Ds kept dumping the sand out, however, so a sandwalk it is.

My five and a half year old still uses ours.

we just started one for my 21 month old and my 8 year old loves it!

We have a sand table and a water table. all the kids love it even the 10 and 8 yr olds. because it is a table the little ones can stand at it and the older ones can pull up a chair and sit there... ours also has a top so it becomes a regular table and hids the sand.... we purchased it from a 'daycare' furniture website and it seems like someone is always using it....
the water table is from Step 2 , i think we got it last spring... the kids LOVE water play too...

All of my kids still love the sand bow. I will even catch the 15 yo in there with here sibs sometimes too!!!

My 3 y/o LOVES playing in the sand... and I still find my older boys (7 and 10y/o) dumping and scooping and building and knocking sand castles down! Usually with half of my baking utensils in hand!!

I'm up ther with Celtain, my kids are 14, 12, 9.5, and 3, were on the second sand box b/c the first one rotted away and we still need it for a long time.

when do you out gorw a sand box --

NEVER

I looove to play in the sand box with my newphews even now

Aimee

The only "outgrowing" that happened was physically outgrowing their little Step 2 plastic ladybug sandbox. When we put in a playset (swings, etc) a few years ago, we had the area under the "fort" that was perfect for a large wooden square sandbox, so we did that instead. My girls are 7.5 and 5.5 and they still love to play in that sandbox. I imagine that they will for quite a while.

My dd is 6 and we are setting up a sandbox. We had a large storage box with sand on a bench at our old house that she enjoyed. She has been digging in the dirt recently here so we got a turtle shaped sandbox free from someone who wasn't using it anymore and we just have to get sand. I think we'll get a lot of use out of the sandbox.

We recently had a slumber party for my 9 yo dd. All of her friends were in the sand box at some point.

Thanks for all the replies mamas! I think I had my mind on the lady bug/turtle shaped ones & she seemed so big for those. I'm going to look into a bigger one, but I want a cover to keep the critters out.

We got a big wooden one for ds last year, when he turned 3. I figured it was a good investment because sandboxes are his "thing" and it'll last a long time and be big enough when he's older.

My 9.5 yo. loves the sandbox still. He often goes to it when he needs to do something soothing/relaxing/sensory oriented.

I agree that the ladybug/turtle ones are WAY too small. I bought one of those second hand, and ds (who is a bit tall, but still) outgrew it by the time he was 2 1/2!

So, for his 4th birthday, I dug out one area of our backyard - we had some 'raised beds' (they weren't planted with anything and the previous owners had just put down bark dust), and made a lovely sand box about 3' x 8'. The kids love it, our neighbors kids love it, and I just use a tarp, weighted down with rocks to cover it. So far it's kept the critters out, the rain mostly out, and seems to work well.

Lynn