Sand castles: what are they and how to build them?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the summer, when you are on vacation at some seaside resort, you, of course, want to gain more vivid impressions, replenish your strength, and sometimes just feel like a seal lying on the beach. This is easy to implement if you are relaxing in the company of adults or on your own. But when small children are resting with you, it will not be possible to limit yourself to simply wallowing in the sand. Your child will quickly get bored with such a vacation, and he will require to come up with some interesting activity. To keep your child entertained, tell and show them how to make sand castles.

This type of entertainment is very popular with children - you can feel like a real builder using the simplest materials: sand, sea water and your own hands. Sand castles are easy to build in the surf - where the sand is neither dry nor too wet. To do this, you can use sand molds, or you can build a structure of absolutely fantastic shapes from droplets of a sand-water mixture.

To teach a child how to build sand castles dripway, dig a small well not far from the wave line, so that the waves do not reach it, but it fills up quickly with water. After that, pick up sand with your palm, dip it into the water of the well, and when the resulting slurry begins to flow through your fingers, begin to lay out the base of the future castle near the well with drops. So, layer by layer on the “shore” of the well, a fragile patterned structure will grow. Due to the fact that the size of the drops can be adjusted with your fingers, such locks can be decorated with beautiful openwork turrets. Children are usually quickly included in such a process, and it is almost impossible to tear them away from such construction.

Did you know that sand castles are not only children's beach fun? The fact is that since 1989, a sand sculpture festival has been held in the Canadian town of Harrison Hot Springs. Sand castles, photos of which are presented at this festival, will amaze any imagination. There, this kind of creativity does not seem like child's play to anyone.

Masters who participate in such competitions take their creations seriously. For example, they accurately calculated the proportions at which a sand-water solution would perform best to make sandcastles durable. It turned out that in order for the structure to be strong, you need to take 1 part of water for 8 parts of sand. In addition, they pay increased attention to the quality and shape of the grains of sand - not all sand is suitable for construction. And the art of making sand sculptures has long been divided into two schools - purists and innovators. The former refuse to use auxiliary tools, formwork, and supporting structures in their sculptures. The latter actively use the engineering approach in the construction of castles.

Suffice it to say that sand castles built by craftsmen sometimes reach fifteen meters in height. But, perhaps, after reading this article, you yourself will become interested in such an unusual hobby. And your sand castles will be even higher.