Taking my 3.5-year-old grandson to the beach for several days soon. (Oregon coast; too cold to go in the water; weather iffy.) Activity suggestions, anyone? Besides the obvious: digging, making sand castles, finding pretty rocks… what do you enjoy doing with your kids at the beach?
maybe take out a rowboat?
are there woodlands nearby for a hike?
is it whale watching season yet?
of course theres always dynamite fishing…
Mother of three here:
Well, you know, to a Three to Four Year Old, everything at the beach is marvelous, fresh, new, and fascinating. “Wow, look at all this sand! The water is wet! And cold! And it goes up and down, back and forth! And look at all this cool stuff washed up! There are bugs in it! Hey, look at those birds! I see a boat out there!”
He’s way too young to be jaded by it all and to need to be “entertained” by you. Just turn him loose in the World’s Biggest Sandbox with a judicious selection of typical sandbox digging toys, keep an eye on him so he doesn’t wander too far down the beach, and make sure he doesn’t try to eat flotsam and jetsam. 
Most valuable advice–locate the rest rooms ahead of time (“pre-need”), so that if they’re pay toilets, you’ll have the correct change handy.
Second most valuable advice–he’s gonna want to collect things to take home, like bird feathers, and broken shells, and bits of seaweed. Bring along a big Ziploc baggie, and politely but firmly veto anything organic.
Third most valuable advice–bring a snack, and something to drink. This will save you having to pay through the nose for “refreshments” on the beach.
Fourth most valuable advice–bring at least one complete change of clothes for him, with dry shoes for going home in, and several pairs of dry pants would be even better. He’s gonna get wet, no matter how many times you tell him, “Don’t go in the water, it’s too cold.”
Fifth most valuable advice–I wouldn’t let him go barefoot in the sand. There are too many sharp things he can step on. Have him wear a pair of old tennis shoes, with or without socks, since it won’t hurt them to get wet (in other words, not the nice leather Reeboks). Flipflops will do, also, but they’re a mite chilly, poor little cold wet bare feet.
Sixth most valuable advice–bring a windbreaker (for both of you, actually). A sweater won’t do it, in that chilly damp air.
Seventh most valuable advice–when he gets genuinely tired of it all, even if it’s after only 20 minutes, pack up and leave. Life’s too short to spend even a minute trying to persuade a bored preschooler that the beach “is SO” fun, as in, 'Here, come help me build a sand castle…isn’t this fun?" And he says, “Um, no, not really, can we go home now?” There’s no rule that says that just because you said you were going to spend the day at the beach, you have to spend the day at the beach. Twenty minutes is fine. Go with the flow.
Eighth most valuable advice–do not get suckered into feeding bread to gulls. Some beaches have a chronic gull problem and you may get dirty looks from other folks.
Rowboats and whale watching tend to run into money, but a hike in the dunes would be okay if it’s less than 1/4 mile, and if he’s not already tired, bored, and cranky. In my experience, preschoolers only “do” hiking well if they’re not already tired and bored. Otherwise you run the very real risk of him balking, of him simply sitting down in the sand and refusing to budge, halfway through your hike, and guess who gets to pick him up and carry him?
Those “pay to fish” trout ponds are fun, and foolproof for preschoolers (they’re guaranteed to catch a fish), albeit expensive, if you’re not too embarrassed by the whole idea of catching tame hatchery trout in a CEE-ment pond. But they are mighty tasty–if you’re going to do it, look for a place that will also clean and cook it for you.
Thanks, Duck Duck Goose and nevah more!
The other reason not to feed the gulls is that they poo when they are eating/excited/flying/not flying/existing, and they -will- be flying over your head.
Eww.
You could bring home a mason jar of sand as a souveneir (sp?)
Well, my son likes to go thru the sand looking for shells, money, etc.
I usually just sit on a log and watch and tell him, Stay away from the water!
We fed the gulls once. It was amazing, they’ll eat anything.
If the beach you are going to has tide pools, I highly recommend that you give them a looksie. Pretty cool and educational too(not that a three year old would remember anything you told him).
On the Sea Gulls. My neighbors and I went to a beach once where some of the other beach goers had been feeding the gulls. We had a bag of chips, and in less the thirty seconds, we were surrounded. It was just like a scene from “The Birds”. Scared us out of our minds and we ran screaming for the car. To creepy for words. Probably not a good thing to subject a three year old to.
Oregon huh? I’ve never been to the beach there so I guess it depends on the quality of the sand but I used to really enjoy spending hours creating little towns with roads to drive my matchbox cars on. If the sands really good you can even build bridges. Use local plants like little pine cones to make trees and such. Hours I tell you.
The Oregon coast is the best place in the whole world (hey, this is IMHO) for kite-flying. Especially this time of year. Bring a couple of cheap kites and get ready for some spectacular height! The sand is usually firm-packed, too, so it’s easy to run down the beach.
Speaking from personal experience, the areas around Cannon Beach and the Devil’s Punchbowl are terrific for agate-hunting. Your child may be too young for that yet, but I was hooked at the age of 5 and haven’t stopped yet.
Building driftwood forts is always a winner. Stack pieces of driftwood as if you were building a log cabin (actual washed-up logs make a great foundation). Make an entry by stacking the wood with small pieces in between the long ones on one side.
Race the “runners” of the breakers: each wave will be preceded by a very shallow, quick-moving runner of water that will come up the beach much higher than the rest of the wave. I used to have a ball going as close to the shoreline as I could and running away from the runner, seeing if I could outpace it. Even if you lose, you get wet up to your ankles at worst.
Draw pictures with sticks in the wet sand.
Turn over largish rocks and see if you can find crabs, limpets, barnacles, snails, sandworms, etc. underneath.
I’ll second the ideas about poking around in tidepools, and heartily second the idea of bringing at least one dry change of clothes and warm shoes with you. Snacks and a thermos of cocoa are a must.
Since you’re going while the weather might be cold, I suggest you also buy some heat packs from REI or the like. They’re gel-filled, and you “snap” them when you’re ready to use them. They get pretty hot quickly, and are a dream for numb fingers (and ears and toes and what-have-you).
Have a blast! Wish I could go, too!
Shera, about ten miles up the coast is a beach with the best tidepools I’ve ever seen. I’ve been visiting the Oregon coast for almost thirty years, and just last year the owner of the place we’ll be staying told me about it… it’s called Lone Ranch, I think, and it’s north of Harris Beach (Brookings) by, oh, five or six miles. Wonderful. Thanks for reminding me! I just checked the tide charts and am so jazzed: minus tides on the days we’ll be there, between 4 and 5:30 pm. Ideal!
I never would have thought of bringing cars. Great idea. No, the sand won’t hold up bridges – but with driftwood (and there’s a ton of that where I’m going) – we can sure make 'em anyway. Thanks.
Thanks, Wonko The Sane!
Great name.
And, danged close: one strange thing about the word ‘souvenir’ is that it’s hard to remember how to spell it. (Get it? Silly pun-like weak joke, here.)
Your welcome. Tide pools were always my favorite part of the beach.
I’ll tell you what is NOT fun: being 3 years old and stepping on a piece of broken glass hidden in the sand, and cutting your big toe so it bleeds all over the place and leaves a scar to this day. 
Beach litterers, SHAME ON YOU!
I like making my son run from the waves like they are “going to him…run!” He cracks up.
Should have previewed. “Run…the waves are going to get you!”
If you’re going to take Matchbox cars to the beach, either take old and un-favorite ones, or keep a sharp eye on what he does with them. Hazards to Matchbox cars at the beach include:
- Salt water making them icky, sticky, and rusty.
- Being buried in sand and the location forgotten (like a squirrel burying nuts).
- Being “borrowed” by other little kids on the beach, who come and play with them and take them with them when they leave.
- Simply being lost.
If any of this happens to the Brand-New Favoritest Matchbox Car In The Whole Wide World, you will find yourself stopping at Toys R Us on the way home and dropping about 20 bucks on “consolation/guilt” toys.