If you need an idea for some fun, learning, and play this weekend, June 29th, 2013 is International Mud Day. For skeptics, there is a FB page for Mud Day with some wild photos of people in various parts of the world playing in the mud. Not all of the players are young children, there are some grownups having just as much fun too.
Playing in the mud can be hands, feet, or the whole body and it is certainly sensory play. Not only are kids having fun, they are learning at the same time, and developing skills and brain connections for kindergarten readiness and beyond.
- Squeezing, mixing, stirring, splashing, and rubbing the mud all over, exercise small muscles in the hands and arms. Stomping uses the big muscles in the legs and the little ones in the toes.
- There are great words for talking about mud like slippery, squishy, liquid, and others. Kids will love to share and tell about what they are doing in the mud.
- Seeing what happens to dirt and water and how it combines is basic science. What else does mud do? Why does it get hard and lumpy after a while?
- Kids can play in the mud by themselves or with friends. It’s inexpensive and ordinary items like spoons, cups, pails, little shovels, and other things hiding in kitchen drawers will extend the play. Kids can bury and find little plastic toys like dinosaurs or animals.
- Mud play is definitely imaginative. The mud can be cakes, pie, secret potions, and more. Kids mold and shape with mud exploring and creating.
After playing in real mud, kids can come in the inside and have some cooking fun–after getting all clean, of course! Good thing kids are wash and towel dry. Bananas and chocolate milk or a bit of chocolate icecream make a yummy muddy smoothie. Or thick yogurt with a bit of chocolate milk makes a dip for fruit cut into slices and chunks. Would you believe this flower is planted in edible mud? The bottom half of the clean pot is cake cubes, then ice cream, and cookie crumbs on the top. The flower is in a straw but it isn’t for eating. How will you and your child celebrate International Mud Day?