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Exposed to a summer of sun and rain, unfinished wood will weather to a mottled gray that isn't very attractive to an adult eye, but doesn't seem to reduce play value to the kids. Bring the blocks and toys in come fall, hose off the sand, bleach with diluted Chlorox or a wood bleach, and store till next winter—when you and the children can refurbish them.

Refinishing or rebuilding the sand toys can be a powerful hint of warm weather to come and become a late-winter family ritual much like carving pumpkins on Halloween. Our kids would get all excited, bundle up in snowsuits and boots, take the wooden toys out to the sandpit (still buried under a yard of snow), play with them in the snow for a while, andof course-leave them buried there. So long as we kept the dogs from carrying the good-chewing wood blocks off, building blocks and sand movers would sink as snow melted and be in place and ready to excavate when the weather warmed in the spring.

A few fastidious young ones and many older kids who are developing a precocious sense of order will resist marking on toys or having toys that look "dirty." For them—or to satisfy your own sense of order—you can give the blocks and toys a better finish. Easiest is to assemble toys, then preserve the wood in one step with several coats of outdoor wood preserving sealer/stain. For a better job, before assembling, sand the wood smooth—slightly, rounding only those sharp corners that will be exposed after assembly. Treat exposed faces with several coats of a good sanding sealer (sanding lightly between coats). Spray parts with several coats of nontoxic exterior-grade enamel, truck bodies in bright colors, and wheels in black or bright with black tires. Assemble and then, for a toy-store finish, spray with thin coats of clear outdoor acrylic finish.

Illustrations:

Building the Sandbox
Building the Water Table

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