Summer Fun: Tin Pails and Beach Buckets for Kids

Summertime means entertaining active youngsters, and outdoor activities for kids inevitably involve sand and water; tin pails or buckets, made with youngsters in mind, are fun for digging, molding, shaping, and designing all manner of sand castles and sand sculpture.

The styles and designs vary, but the thrill of running sand through fingers and toes is always a blast.

Be sure to read through the hub for a variety of pails and buckets available, suited to summer kids outdoor activities. Further, hints and suggestions are given for creatively using kids tin pails or buckets as parenting tools and organizers. Tin pails and plastic buckets are classic signs of summer fun. Parents can put them to good use, not only as toys, but as organizers in the household.

Amazon offers tin pails in solid colors, as well in various designs, attractive to youngsters and suitable for the beach, or the backyard.

Listed are a selection of metal pails currently available.

Outdoor play time is fun for any youngster. A tin pail with your child's favorite characters is sure to add to the fun.

If your youngster loves Dora, or Diego, Ernie and Bert, Big Bird, or Thomas the Train, you can look for those characters on tin pails and metal buckets.  These make great gifts, filled with summer supplies, or fun activities.  Make a great get-well gift for a little one, filling these pails with crayons, cards, stickers, and coloring books.  Make favors for a birthday party, or take a tin pail on a treasure hunt.  Your imaginations are the only limit to the fun you can have!

For the parent who prefers the plastic pail or bucket for their youngsters, there are some wonderful styles and characters available, as well. Stylish and sturdy, metal or plastic, there are lots of great choices for your youngster's summer fun.

Melissa and Doug pails and buckets offer clever design for the curious younger child.

Active kiddos during summer months can be a tremendous challenge. Toys and belongings end up strewn about while the kids move from one activity to another. Pails and buckets are great containers for holding belongings, small toys, small activities, and other odds and ends. Some ideas for using these to your advantage are as follows:

Color Coordinate: Each child has a specific color of "Belongings Bucket". All small items belonging to a child go into their assigned bucket. Further, coordinate with a drinking cup or water bottle, which, when not in use, can be kept in that location. Use colored buckets or pails as snack stations. Snack time need not be a matter of complaining about the options. The child's snacks for the day can be placed in the bucket first thing in the morning, and as the child needs a snack through the day, he or she can select from their allotment. Small pails or buckets can serve this same purpose in the fridge. Distribute the grapes, apples, string cheese, and other items that you need, or want, to keep cold, so that there is no complaining about the grapes being gone, or not getting a string cheese.

Mini-Activity Centers: Use tin pails or plastic buckets to manage small scale activities. When the outdoor activities are complete, or when the heat is too extreme to play in, rather than parking the kids in front of the television, have them select a pail, and work on the activity contained within. Card games in one bucket, art supplies in another, puzzle books or favorite magazines in yet another. Craft supplies such as popsicle or glue sticks, pompoms, foam shapes in another. Special activity days may involve t-shirts and t-shirt paints. The possibilities are only limited by your creativity. A bucket can be permanently assigned to an activity for the summer (and beyond), or the activities can be rotated in and out of the pails and buckets.

Water Play Items: Use pails or buckets to hold squirt guns or water balloons, containing the items in one place. This avoids having wet squirt guns left inadvertently on furniture or floors, and makes it easy to get one of these activities going at a moment's notice.

Bathroom Buckets: Use pails or buckets to help the kids organize their grooming supplies. Have them keep toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush/comb, in their pail, which goes to the bathroom with them, and returns to the bedroom after grooming and hygiene are complete. This helps to keep things a little tidier, easier on mom and dad, and prevents that array of mixed up materials on the bathroom counter that can seriously frustrate neat and tidy people in the house. Keep an extra bucket or two on hand for guests to use.

Treat Buckets: Have a bucket or pail on hand, dedicated to special treats or sweets. Tuck away for an occasional motivator. Or, fill with small treasure chest type toys, stickers, and such, to use as rewards for completed chores and responsibilities.

Lunch in a Pail:  Little House on the Prairie style, you can pack a picnic lunch for your child, using a literal lunch pail.  Pack a pail for each child, and go outside or to the park for a picnic.  Bring along a book to read, perhaps Little House on the Prairie.

Summer is the perfect time to put tin pails, or plastic, to great use.  Not only for traditional uses, but for some creative organizing, they are great toys, and great tools.  Augment outdoor activities for kids, organize their things, and enjoy those lazy days this summer.