What Makes Childhood Magical? Part 8: Mud Play

To children, mud is magical. Altho countless generations of children have loved to play with mud, to a child mixing some, it seems to be unique and personal. Once kids know the formula, it can be created over and over.

Mud Play

mud play fun and learningThere are so many different ways to play with mud. It’s fun to stir, squish, pour, pat, mold, pile, and other actions. Playing with mud is no doubt a highly sensory experience for the sense of touch. Most children enjoy the different feelings and textures of wet liquidy mud that oozes between fingers, even if it feels too tight when it dries. Mud is also a component of imaginative and creative play as kids form it into pies, cakes, soup, and more. Mud changes over time and can be mixed with sticks, rocks, pine cones, grass, flowers, and other things for even more fun.

Where I grew up, our small town was nicknamed Mudthorpe–because of the heavy, gooey mud that seemed to be everywhere, whenever it rained. As we waited for it to dry, cars would get stuck, boots would pull right off, and kids and some adults would fall in the mud and be covered from head to toe. While I loved playing with and in the mud, I sure hated having to scrape it off shoes and poke it out of the plugged wheels on my bike. Everyone could tell a car from Mudthorpe. It was never clean.

Sometimes, mud can be in short supply in cities but kids seem to have a built-in mechanism to find some, especially if they are wearing good clothes. But, one of the advantages of mud is that it can usually be all washed off with soap and water. Does your child like to play in the mud?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.