Flipping Moon Sand

We bought some moon sand a while back for a rainy (more realistically snowy) day and yesterday we busted it out. (Yep it was a snowy day!) I thought it would be like playdoh but maybe more pliable. I really wasn't sure about the stuff.

Delaney proceeded to mix all three of our colors and started pressing the caps to the Moon Sand containers to get little molded shapes. The shapes were not as distinct as the Play Doh molds we make. But anyway, after about 10 minutes of making an ENORMOUS mess and not much creative product to show for it, we decided to put it away. I wasn't sure if I was missing something with this stuff. Was I using it wrong? Do you need to add something to it?

Later on in the day my 1-year-old son found a way to reach one of the little tubs, pulled it down and miraculously pulled off one of the tops. I got to him just as he was ingesting some of it and think I got most of it out of his mouth. I then called Poison Control just to make sure it wasn't lethal and they said if I got to him before he really ate it it would not be a big deal.

Then I went online and Googled "eating moon sand" and found some absolutely terrifying stuff about ingesting Moon Sand. And allergic reactions on children (like burning off skin). There were reports of dogs dying and needing intestinal surgeries from eating it. I know it is not surprising that I found frightening tales online, but it was almost enough to make me call the company.

Needless to say, our Moon Sand is now in the trash. Every last granule.

I have no idea what Moon Sand is made of, or if all of those claims are true, but my advice to you is to avoid it. Even if it were healthy to eat, the stuff makes a monster mess that is nearly impossible to clean up (like wispy granules of sand) and is hard to create anything worthwhile with it. Play Doh is messy too, but nothing like Moon Sand and not nearly as potentially toxic to the skin.

Sorry Moon Sand, I am going to have to give the thumbs down on the product.

Updates

So many things to update on.

School is swimming along, I only have one month left and have actually completed all of the work in 2 of my classes, so I can feel the home stretch approaching.

Kevin has been gone a lot and it's been really friggin hard. The kids got sick, and teeth are sprouting up every day in Garrett's mouth and Delaney is sporting a serious TUDE that needs to go away.

We decided that I am going to take a year off of work/school next year and I will just sub. I think the job market is so lousy that a good teaching job would be nearly impossible so maybe it will be a good thing. We'll see. If I can find a great part time gig doing literacy or something else I would take it. But being a first year teacher with two young kiddos after going through a few stressful years seems like overload.

We seem to be making it work with one income although I'm not really sure how we are doing it. We are close to zero every two weeks but just seem to make it out in time. I worry about that unexpected disaster that could send us below zero but just keeping my fingers crossed.

We are here for Thanksgiving and Christmas which will be nice. I'm looking forward to getting fully into the Christmas spirit. :)

More updates to come this week and next, but just wanted to put a post out there and get the ball rolling again.