Hey Laura, What...?

Brandi writes:

Hey Laura—We recently acquired one of those plastic, turtle-shaped sandboxes with a lid on it for our 3 yr old.  I need to get some sand to fill it up with, but when I googled “sandbox sand” I found numerous articles saying that most sandbox sand that one can purchase contains all kinds of carcinogens.  Yuck!  Is the sandbox sand that one buys at big box stores like Target truly carcinogenic and unsafe for the little ones?  And if so, what are some affordable options (aka NOT $60 a bag) for safe sandbox sand?

This was a fun Google adventure for me! Since we are cheap and make our kid play in the dirt, I have no experience with your fancy-pants playsand. ;)

Here’s the dirt...