Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

I am so excited to announce a week long Play Inspired By Nature series that I am doing with my good friend Crystal from Growing A Jeweled Rose.  Each day, both of us will be posting exciting ideas on how to enjoy nature with your kids.  By the end of the week we will have shared 10 exciting ideas all focused on going outside and exploring nature with our kids.  I can’t wait to share what we have been creating and exploring.

To kick off our series both Crystal and myself are exploring mud together with our kids today:)  Yep, we are diving right into good old fashioned mud play and loving it!

If you click on the image on the right you will be taken to Growing A Jeweled Rose site.  Make sure to check out her amazing Mud Play Recipes.  We are both really excited to be bringing you our Play Inspired By Nature series!  Hope you have as much fun as we do:)

……………………………………………………………

Now onto this weeks post, Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud.

As a kid I loved playing in the mud.  I grew up on a farm with plenty of space to splash in puddles and play in the mud.  Me and my brother would spend hours digging trenches with the heels of our boots to connect mud puddles.  We would also build simple mud dams to stop other puddles from escaping.  Little did we know we were budding engineers.

Wanting to give my kids a similar experience (but limited to a small urban backyard) we had to get creative.  Let me tell you the kids had a blast!  We started by digging a hole in one of my side annual gardens, and filling it with water.  It became and instant puddle that my kids couldn’t resist jumping in.  I’ve mentioned before that my kids are puddle magnets.

We added some dirt to a large pot and the kids stirred in water to make soupy mud.  They started out with a stick, but soon jumped in with hands and feet.  There is nothing quite like squishing mud in between your toes:)

Next we rolled out a huge piece of white paper.   Mixed up a little mud and water and started creating art!  They painted with mud, then rolled it, stamped it and finger painted with it.  The process was completely amazing and the kids LOVED every minute of it!

Soon the paint brushes were set aside for some good old fashioned Mud Prints.  The kids loved stamping their muddy feet and hands on the paper creating fun designs and patterns.  We chose to do create our mud prints on a large piece of paper, but the sidewalk is another great canvas.  Plus that would make the set up that much simpler:)

Tips for setting up your own mud play adventure:

•  Embrace the mess.  Playing in mud is not only fun, but the kids are learning at the same time!
• Set up a mud pie kitchen.  Check out this amazing outdoor mud pie kitchen.  Lots of yummy mud pies, cookies and cupcakes have been created there!
• Bring in the trucks!  Kids love playing with dump trucks in the sand, so why not the mud too.
• Have a bucket of clean water on hand to rinse of little muddy feet and hands and a hose near by for the larger clean ups:)
• Outdoor clothes are a must!  Paying in the mud is going to get messy, so be prepared.  I can’t remember where I heard this, but “there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing! So true.
• Laugh!  The most important ingredient in any mud pie kitchen is to have fun and don’t worry about the mess!

The kids also made some great mud sculptures that I missed getting pictures of.  Apparently we were having too much fun playing:)

We also added colored water and syringes.  Magic potions, mud and glitter are a win in my girls book.

We also made adorable mud drawings.  Mud is a very forgiving medium to work with.  Smooth a thin layer of mud over surface, (a sidewalk or a piece of cardboard work great)  and use a stick as a pencil.  My kids loved making these simple Subjective Mud Drawings.  The best part is, if you don’t like how your drawing is turning out, just smear the mud smooth and start all over.

We also found a number of wonderful worms during our adventure.  The kids thought it was great fun to spot a little worm wiggling though their art work.

Do you embrace muddy play at your house?

……………………………………………………………

My sweet friend Crystal from Growing A Jeweled Rose is the Queen of Messy Play and if you are looking for some more great ideas on how to play with mud make sure to check out her Mud Play Recipes.  

I also love the MUD PARTY that she threw for her kids!

……………………………………………………………

You might also enjoy the learning through movement series being shared by members of:

Gross Motor Addition Game

Number Hunt

Add It Up

……………………………………………………………