Messy Play Date FUN!

Hi friends!

Last week our friend Tex and his mama invited the twins and I over for a messy play date. Since we’re big fans of messy play and good company, we agreed right away! When we got to Tex’s house, we discovered (to my great delight) that Mama Tex had set us up with all the fixin’s to make Magic Mud from Growing a Jeweled Rose. I’m not going to give away the whole recipe (you’ll have to hop on over to GAJR for all the details), but take it from me…it was an ooey, gooey, fizzy, bubbly SUCCESS!

The kids had a great time with every step of the process. First we mixed plain ole’ dirt with the “magic” ingredients. We stirred, mixed, and transferred the crumbly mixture for quite awhile just as it was.

Once the dirt was good and mixed, we added even more excitement by pouring in our “secret ingredient” that made our colorful dirt erupt into a glorious mountain of shiny bubbles!

You HAVE to try this, guys- it was seriously cool. Plus, every time we stirred the mixture we got a new explosion of fizz as more of the reactants came in contact with each other. As you can see above, a poor unsuspecting dinosaur got a nice bubbly mud bath courtesy of Tex.

Will decided that a hammer made the best mixing tool.

Sydney enjoyed popping the bubbles the most!

Mama Tex had set out a variety of kitchen items (pans, utensils, etc.) to encourage pretend play. Will enjoyed making magic cupcakes and mudpies with the delightfully bubbly concoction. Mama Tex told us later that after nap time, she and Tex popped the “baked goods” out of the pans and they looked surprisingly realistic because the bubbles created by the magic ingredients gave them a cake-like appearance.

As you can see, a good time was had by all!

Want to hold your own messy play date? Here are a few tips to keep in mind when choosing activities:

1. Choose simple activities with just a few ingredients. This will help keep preparation time and cost under control, and in our experience, simple activities are just as well received as more elaborate ones. Fun at Home With Kids has a great series on simple sensory play with lots of easy sensory ideas with two ingredients or less!

2. Choose activities that can be played with/manipulated in different ways. Aside from the obvious WOW factor, the magic mud was so engaging because Mama Tex did a great job of leaving it open-ended. As a result, we had a mixing laboratory, a dinosaur small world, a construction site, and a bakery all in one activity! Which leads me to my next point…

3. Add elements that encourage pretend play. Along with tools for dumping, scooping, pouring, and mixing, Mama Tex provided access to pretend play items such as the pots and pans, tools, and dinosaurs for the children to choose from.

4. Have a cleanup plan! Think through your activity ahead of time in order to prepare for the inevitable spills and splatters. Is this an activity that is better suited for the outdoors? If you are going to be working inside, can you cover your work surface and floors? Cheap vinyl and plastic tablecloths are a staple in our house- they can be taped to the floor, table, or even walls with painter’s tape to protect surfaces from mess. We keep a stack of old sheets and towels ready for cleanup as well. You will notice in many of my photos that my children are either wearing old clothes or stripped down to their diapers for activities so I don’t have to worry about stains. After all- it’s a MESSY play date!

Resources:

If you haven’t visited Growing a Jeweled Rose, hop on over! Crystal, the oh-so-creative author, has filled her site with every sensory play idea and recipe that you could imagine, and a few hundred more that you haven’t! Click on the picture below to view her magic mud post for all the details on how to try it out yourself!

And wouldn’t you know, Crystal has also posted quite a few group sensory play dates of her own, and has compiled quite a fantastic list of tips and tricks for getting the most out of the experience. Click on the picture below to view her informative post, which also includes links to all of her messy play parties!

Looking for language stimulation activities? Here’s a detailed post from my archives on how you can target speech and language skills in toddlers through messy play:

Wondering if all of this is really necessary? Read up on what the research has to say about the benefits of sensory play here:

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