He Invented Google Docs. But His Beach Game is Pure Genius.

This simple beach game idea is too great not to share, especially for anyone who wants to see their kids truly engaged, curious, and thrilled by…a pile of sand.

It comes to us from Steve Newman, a Bay Area dad of two who are now old enough to drive themselves to the beach. When not rolling tennis balls down piles of sand, Steve writes software. A co-founder of the startup that became Google Docs (!!!), Steve is now working on a non-profit initiative to improve the public debate around AI policy. He writes about the future of AI and its impact on the world on his Substack, Am I Stronger Yet?, where this post originally appeared.

Unlocking The Generative Urgency of Childhood, by Steve Newman

Whenever I take kids to the beach, we always bring three things: a full-size shovel, a telescoping trowel, and some tennis balls.

The shovel is for making a Big Pile Of Sand. Kids can have a pretty good time with a pile of sand.

But tennis balls are the key. Suddenly the project has moving parts.

Children cannot get enough of this. Whenever we get a project going, any other kids in the vicinity drift over, and are soon part of the team:

They’ll work for hours: extending the track, adding branches, making adjustments. But the prized role is that of tester. There’s an instinctive urge to put the ball at the top of the track and see what happens, again and again.

They become invested in some private vision. They’ll scoop out a path, lovingly smooth it with whatever tool they have decided is essential, and call urgently for a test ball.

Sometimes arguments break out: over the choice of route, or whether more sand is needed here, or why did you roll that ball down I wasn’t ready yet! Everything is charged with that urgency of childhood. But mostly there’s a remarkable degree of cooperation and emergent organization.

I mentioned a telescoping trowel. That’s for making tunnels.

I don’t know why Kmart once decided to stock a trowel with a five-foot telescoping handle, but when I saw it in the garden section I instantly realized I had struck gold. To a kid, a tunnel is a teleportation device: the ball vanishes here and reappears over there.

If you have access to a beach and a child, you can easily try this yourself. Bring more than one ball, they’re easy to lose. Start out by making a big pile of sand, as big as you and your underage team have patience for – a full-sized garden shovel is extremely helpful (but don’t let little kids use it – someone might get hurt). As you go, pour lots of water to keep the pile wet and compact.

Once your pile is done, pack it down hard (kids love to help with this part). And then start carving your track. You can use a toy shovel but hands are often best. You start at the top, of course. Wander downhill as fancy strikes; don’t bother with a plan. Send lots of balls down – your little helpers will be glad to take on this task – to test the slope. You want it just steep enough to move the ball at a moderate pace. Your instinct will be to carve a deep, rounded channel, but flat is better. Just bank it for the turns. And, of course, back off as soon as your apprentices show signs of taking over.

And take over they will. I don’t know why it’s so irresistible. Something about the unlimited freedom of digging in the sand, combined with the magic of making a thing that does something.

Thanks to Heike Larson of the Roots of Progress Institute and Lenore Skenazy of Let Grow / Free-Range Kids for feedback, suggestions, and encouragement. And to every kid who has ever wandered over and asked “can I help”? For more tips and tricks, click here. Tip #1: You can never have too many tennis balls.