Kids and the Beach
My son Max on the beach in Oregon
Many small children are afraid of going to the ocean. I have a friend who lives in Florida, of all places, about two miles from the ocean, and her son hates it! The crashing waves scare him, the undertow is frightening and the water makes his sensitive skin burn.
One of my jobs was to get my children to love the beach as much as I do. It’s a job I undertook with great enthusiasm because I simply cannot live without an ocean trip once every few years or so. This summer will for SURE include a trip to the West Coast. I don’t care where. All I know is that it’s been far too long since I’ve moseyed along the sand and since I’ve had really good seafood, so I’ll head to Washington State and find a good place to do so.
To get my kids enthused about the beach, the first thing I did was buy some cheap sand toys. You can get each of them a bucket, shove and rake set for just a couple of bucks at Wal Mart.
Next, I remind them of all the seashells they have and that they love to collect. I fill their heads with visions of their new bucket being full of shells and sand dollars to put in their dish at home.
Lastly, we look at pictures of sand castles they’ve built at rivers and lakes here in Montana and I tell them of all the sand that will be available to them by the ocean. They also love to bury each other (see picture above) and once reminded that they are free to do that, even to Mom, they get VERY excited!
As for the undertow, it’s important that your little ones know that you will keep hold of them if and when they go into the water. If possible, find a calm spot that has very little waves and still make sure that you keep them protected. You could even dig a spot out that is close enough to the water to fill up a little ‘pond’ for them to float little boats in, but far enough away for them to be safe.
All of my children are sensitive to ocean water. They have fairly pale skin and we need to coat them (after sunscreen is applied of course) liberally with Eucerine Cream or Vaseline so their skin has as little direct contact with the water as possible. This cuts down on the whining, and anything that does that is okay by me! Down with whining!
We are incredibly thrilled to find our spot by the sea this summer!
ocean, waves, sand, West Coast, Washington State, Montana, rivers, lakes, summer break, Florida, Oregon, sensitive skin
March 9th, 2007 at 1:59 am
I remember my parents getting us those little buckets and shovels and we had at it with rocks, shells and anything else we thought would be a great addition to our collection! My father was in the Navy so we were always close to water. I was born in Washington state, then southern California and our final stop was Long Island New York. A great place for a family trip with kids would be Cape Cod Mass. There is so much for them to do they they don’t have time to fear the water.