Living / 16 August, 2020 / Nanny Anita

Sand Mandalas For Kids

We decided to create some sand mandalas on a very grey and wet summer’s day as a way of adding a little brightness and cheer to it. Everyone got very involved in making them.  I do have to say they are very addictive and calming; it is like doing an adult colouring book. Although the wind looked like it would actually ruin everything at one point, ultimately everything turned out beautifully. I think the slightly wet ground helped the sand to stick.

A mandala is a circular spiritual symbol found in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism to represent the universe. It is often used to help focus attention and as an aid for meditation.  Mandalas often use symmetry and repeating patterns which make the design possibilities endless.

Make sure you follow our craft board on Pinterest for more ideas, and don’t forget to pin the Pin at the bottom of the page.

You will need:

• Coloured sand
• Condiment containers
• A piece of chalk
• String

The first thing you need to do is make a circle; we used a piece of chalk attached to some string as a make shift compass to make our circle.

If you don’t happen to have any coloured sand (Baker Ross do a good and cheep set of 6 neon colours) then you can always use salt that has been coloured with food colouring.

Fill your condiment containers with the sand and use them to make your patterns.

EC went for a line pattern, whereas YC tried to do make some patterns but eventually ended up with a really nice blended pattern that I doubt you would be able to recreate.

After we had finished our sand mandalas EC decided to head out and do something different while YC wanted to carry on playing with the sand. Somehow she started playing teachers and she started writing her letters out using the sand so that she could teach them to me. I just love it when they take activities in their own directions without any prompting from me.

YC making some Willy Wonka chocolate bars with added rocks (which were actually caramel bits).

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