5 Ideas Using Autumn Leaves

Now that the leaves are changing colour and falling from the trees, if you want some inspiration for alternative craft activities to do with your little ones, autumn leaves are ideal. Young babies will enjoy simply exploring a tray of autumn leaves, but with toddlers and beyond there are various directions you can go with autumn leaf crafts. Here are five craft ideas using leaves to get you started.

Image by Hotblack via Morguefile

Tree collage

Draw around your lower arm and palm, or that of your tots, on a sheet of paper to represent a tree trunk and branches. Colour or paint your tree base and then use glue to stick leaves to the branches as foliage

Leaf rubbing

Use tape to stick a few leaves to a hard surface – whether a table, worktop or kitchen floor – and cover with a piece of white paper. Secure the paper with tape at the corners so that it doesn’t slip and rub a crayon over the leaves. If your crayons are wrapped in paper, you’ll need to take this off before you begin.

Leaf printing

Paint your leaves – it’s up to your little ones whether they choose traditional autumn colours or alternative colours, and whether they paint the leaves one colour or multicolour – then put them paint-side face down on your paper. You can get your kids to just press down, but they might have more fun using a rolling pin.

Leaf ring

Take a paper plate and cut out the inner circle. You can then let your youngsters stick leaves around the rim to make an autumn wreath.

Autumn leaf confetti

Place your autumn leaves in a shallow container and get your children to help you scrunch up your collection of leaves into tiny bits. Spread glue on some paper and scatter your leaf confetti over so that it sticks. Alternatively, cut out cardboard leaf shapes to cover.

Outdoor Play for Kids - Keep It Simple!

This month’s messy play group in St Bees had a gardening theme. Our little gardeners had fun potting up vegetables, squelching in a mud bath, pouring sand through funnels, painting with fruit and vegetable pigments and sticking petals and herbs. So while there aren’t any recipes to share for homemade sensory materials but wanting to keep with a similar topic, I thought it would be interesting to think about outdoor garden play.

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What do your tots play with when they’re outside? My little boy was given a slide and toy lawnmower, and I haven’t felt the need to add to his outdoor toys, other than buying him a set of kids’ garden tools. He likes nothing more than playing with a watering can, plant pots and generally exploring our garden. Fair enough, he’s only 20 months, but long may his enjoyment of the simple things that the garden has to offer last. If he’s anything like the kids in a survey by Randy White, a playground designer, he may well continue to enjoy the items that are naturally present there. When children were asked what they’d like to see best in an outdoor play area, elements like water, greenery and sand were top of their list, rather than swings, slides and other playground equipment. Why might this be? Although play equipment is good fun, it’s easy to tire of activities that aren’t open-ended, whereas things like a sandpit, tub of water or trees can be used more creatively and played with in numerous ways.

A list of items to include in a natural play environment compiled by the playground designer include:

• Water: You don’t need a water table or a paddling pool, simply fill up a bucket, large pan or a plastic storage box. Then supply items from your kitchen for play such as cups, scoops, funnel, colander, ladle, balloon whisk, or anything else that your little ones can use for filling, pouring or stirring.
• Sand: Again, a sandbox isn’t necessary, just fill any large container you have with play sand and supply some utensils for scooping, pouring and sifting.
• Vegetation: Even if you don’t have any trees or borders for shrubs and flowers already, you can always use pots to grow flowers, herbs, veg or fruit. If you have a patch of spare ground and you’re looking for something low maintenance to try, get a packet of wild flower seeds and enjoy the butterflies, bees and other insects they attract.
• Natural structures: Trees can potentially give youngsters somewhere to sit on or under, lean against or climb, as well as offering shade and shelter. Alternatively, you could try your hand at willow weaving to create a den. However, you can keep things simple with some logs for seating or clambering over, or some stepping stones. If you’re struggling for a shelter though, you can’t go wrong with a sheet draped over the washing line and secured to the ground for a makeshift tent.
• Sensory opportunities: While these are all around your children in the garden, you can always set up a sensory station by filling up containers with natural materials from sand and bark chippings to stones and shells to let your little ones explore a range of textures and colours.
• Opportunities to appreciate the seasons and weather: You can pick up items like a thermometer and wind chimes cheaply, and have a go at making your own garden sundial and water butt.
• Items that can be used in many ways: Kids are well-known for their love of household items, so let them have fun with pots, pans, safe utensils, brooms and anything else you think they can play happily with.

Something not mentioned by White, but is becoming more popular, is to put aside an area of your outdoor space for a play garden. Although you’ll see some impressive examples of play gardens online, it doesn’t have to be flashy; simply use natural materials to fence off a patch, plant some greenery, add stones and pots, give your tots some little tools and a watering can, and away they go. Even if you don’t have time to make your kids their own garden space, let them have fun in an area of the garden you’re not bothered about. Turn the hose on the soil to make a natural mud bath and it’ll keep them entertained!

Let Your Kids Play in the Soil!

If you’re happy to let your little ones get messy with water, food items, paints, play dough and sand, what about soil? Although letting babies and toddlers play in the dirt may seem a step too far for some parents, letting your kids get dirty is a good idea. You might worry that playing in the earth means your tots are more likely to get poorly, but children who spend more time playing in the garden, woods and other natural spaces are healthier than their peers that who don’t get this exposure.

Soil is teeming with microbes, which is a good thing. Young children need contact with a wide range of micro-organisms to enhance the diversity of their gut flora, which is essential for a strong immune system and good health. The link between exposure to microbes and health relates to the fact that when we don’t challenge our immune systems regularly, our white blood cells start reacting to foods and other things in our environment, such as pollen and animal hair, which gives rise to allergies. Studies back this up, with one example being that kids living on farms are less likely to suffer from allergies or asthma, which is thought to be thanks to the diverse microbes they come into contact with.

Image by ronnieb via morguefile

Encourage your tots to play in the soil, make mud pies and don’t worry if they want to sample some! Just wash their hands with water and soap when they’re finished, so there’s no need to use antibacterial products. Interestingly, research shows that young kids living in homes where bleach is used are more vulnerable to infections, so hold the harsh cleaning products for everyday cleaning.

While you can top up your little one’s gut microbes with probiotic supplements, don’t underestimate the benefits that outdoor play can have, which is one more reason to encourage your kids to spend more time outside.

5 Minute Make - Cloud Dough

If you’re looking for an alternative to play dough, what about cloud dough? When you run your fingers through cloud dough, it is silky and a bit like fine sand, which is probably where its alternative name, “moon sand”, comes from. Little ones certainly have fun scooping and pouring it, as I saw at this month's messy play session. However, when you scrunch some together in your hand, you can also mould the dough. With just three ingredients, you can whip up a batch in no time with items from your kitchen, so within five minutes your little ones have a fun sensory material to explore.

Although some recipes for cloud dough suggest using baby oil, for my recent messy play group in St Bees I used vegetable oil to make it safe if eaten. You can use whatever vegetable oil you have in your cupboard, but rapeseed oil, which is used in most generic vegetable oils, worked well.

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To make cloud dough, simply mix two cups of flour with a quarter of a cup of vegetable oil. For colour, you either need to add powdered food dye to your flour or add oil-based food colouring to your oil before mixing, as standard water-based food colour doesn’t work due to the oil content.

As you can imagine, the cloud dough gets everywhere, so you’re best off placing a tub on a wipe clean surface, putting down an old sheet or taking your kids outside for their sensory play!

Looking for a New Goo Recipe? Try This

Little kids love to get their hands stuck in to slime and gooey materials. If you’ve already tried cornflour gloop, what other options are there for homemade goos?

There are lots of recipes for goop online, but if your little one likes to taste new materials, it’s best to avoid slimes that use PVA glue or borax. A simple and safe goo that you might like to try is hydrated basil seeds. It might not sound very inspiring, but when you soak basil seeds, they form a gel casing, which takes up food colouring well. The result is something that resembles frogspawn. At this month’s session of messy play in St Bees, the tray with yellow, blue, orange and green frogspawn went down really well, as little hands set to work exploring the mix.

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The hydrated seeds stick to clothing and towels like mad, so you might like to have your tots play with these just in their nappy or pants for easy cleaning! If this doesn’t put you off, the recipe for frogspawn couldn’t be easier. Simply take one tablespoon of basil seeds – you can buy these on ebay and Amazon - and one and a quarter cups of water coloured with food dye of your choice. It takes just five minutes for the seeds to swell and your kids can play with them straight away. If you’re making the seeds ahead of play, you may need to add some extra water to help the seeds unstuck and flow more easily.

Making Too Much of Messy Play?

For all I’ve set up a messy play group in West Cumbria, I understand where people are coming from when they say that too much is made of structured messy play, sensory play, creative play and related activities.

Play comes naturally to kids and it’s the best way for them to learn when they’re young, so you can just keep it simple. Although you can spend hours in the kitchen whipping up various materials with interesting properties and plan craft activities with an end product in mind, it’s not necessary.

Image by Nevit via Wikimedia Commons

Give a baby, toddler or preschooler a tub filled with water, sand or soil, along with some pots and utensils, and this simple activity can keep them entertained for a good chunk of time – potentially longer than with more elaborate sensory play ideas. Equally, supply some paint, glue, pieces to stick and paper, and away your little one can go. You might need to give a little direction with something unfamiliar, but try to let children use their natural curiosity to explore, as that’s when they learn the most. When it comes to creative activities, try to forget about any ideas you may have about making a particular item, as it’s the creative process that’s important and your tot can’t have free reign if you’re trying to overly guide them.

Whatever your little one plays with or creates, they’ll get something out of it and the most important thing is that they have fun. If you’ve enjoyed an activity together then it’s a success!

Play Dough with a Twist

Shop-bought play dough is handy to have in the cupboard, but you don’t get much in a pot, so it doesn’t stretch far if you have a few kids to entertain or you run a playgroup. Meanwhile, homemade play dough is cheap and easy to make, so you can make it in bulk, and thanks to its salt content will keep for months in an airtight container. If you’ve made your own play dough before, you’ve probably dyed it various shades, but have you considered additions that give your dough an aroma? As sensory play is about stimulating all the senses, making scented play dough is an option to stimulate your little ones’ sense of smell. There are lots of possibilities for how you can add aroma to your play dough using various flavourings, but at this month’s messy play group in St Bees I used lemon, mint and cinnamon.

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Simply add two cups of flour, one cup of salt and two tablespoons of oil to a bowl, along with your chosen flavouring. To this add one and a half cups of boiling water and your preferred food colouring. Then mix everything together and your dough is ready for play!

If your tots still put everything in their mouth, salty play dough recipes like this one aren’t suitable, as it’s easy for babies and toddlers to quickly overdose on salt, which can be toxic. Instead, you can make bread dough for them to play with, which you can still colour and add flavourings to.

Add a Splash of Colour to Pasta

Making a pasta collage and then painting it is an enjoyable activity for a rainy day, but have you tried dying pasta before your kids have fun with it?

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Making pasta more vibrant is very easy, as all you need in addition to the pasta is oil and food colouring. Simply cook the pasta according to the directions, add enough oil to coat – I found that a tablespoon is sufficient for 100g of uncooked pasta – and then add as much or as little food colouring as you want to reach the desired shade, giving it a good mix to evenly coat the shapes. Then leave for at least an hour to dry before play begins.

You could stick to one colour of pasta, or do as we did at this month’s session of messy play in St Bees, and use a different pigment for each different shape of pasta. The red, blue, green and yellow pasta shapes were soon well-mixed in the tub once little hands got to work!

Besides exploring the texture of pasta, there are other directions in which you might take pasta play. Younger tots will enjoy finding small toys or other safe objects buried in a tub of pasta. Toddlers can also practice threading pasta tubes on to a string, which enhances their manual dexterity. Alternatively, youngsters can sort mixed up pasta into like colours. If you try dying your own pasta, you and your children may well come up with further ideas for sensory play!

Sensory Play Without the Mess

The clue is in the name, messy play is messy! You can embrace sensory play and accept that you’re going to have some cleaning up to do at the end of creative activities, covering up surfaces to minimise the mess. However, there are probably times when you want a sensory activity that doesn’t involve too much of a cleanup operation once the fun is over. Playdough and outdoor water play tick these boxes, but it’s easy to fall into a rut of always going to the same options for clean messy play.  If you want to mix things up for your kids, why not try out the following suggestions for less messy sensory activities. These cleaner options for sensory play are also a good bet if your little ones don’t like getting their hands dirty.

Image by Lisasolonynko via Morguefile

Fun with items from your store cupboard

Although the likes of tinned custard and spaghetti are great materials for babies and toddlers to explore, you’re not going to escape the mess with these edible materials. On the other hand, dried pasta, rice, lentils, couscous and oats are ideal for taking a good chunk of the messy out of sensory play. Small children will love scooping up these dry foods and pouring them through funnels, moving them from one container to another and arranging them into patterns. Your little ones will also enjoy the skin feel as they dance on lentils or trickle couscous over their skin. If you use a plastic sheet or tarp, once your tots have had their fill of exploration, you can simply scoop up dry foods using a serving spoon or spatula.

A twist on water play

Besides adding food colouring to water or using a variety of utensils, youngsters can enjoy water play with a difference when they have a go at washing up. They’ve probably seen you wash the dishes tens of times, so they’ll enjoy the chance to role play, and like sensory play, let’s pretend activities enhance tots’ development. If you have a step-up, you can use your kitchen sink for playing wash up. Simply place a plastic bowl with soapy water and one with water to rinse in the sink and provide a tea towel for drying. Let your little ones choose whether they wash a plastic tea set, safe utensils or their toys. If you aren’t able to use a sink, set up the bowls outside, or on a wet day, run the activity on a wipe clean floor.

Image by Krosseel via Morguefile

Explore natural items

The fun of this activity comes in two parts, as your kids will enjoy collecting items for their nature box, as well as exploring them afterwards. You could collect natural objects from your garden, the beach, when out on a woodland walk, or from anywhere else that might have items of interest. Examples of additions to your children’s nature sensory box include autumn leaves, pine cones, twigs, stones, shells, feathers, sheaves of wheat or corn, and grasses. For preschool kids who are beyond putting objects in their mouth, you can also include items like acorns and edible berries such as rosehips and rowan. Once you’ve gathered the natural objects together, there are various ways your little ones can explore the collection. If you have a baby, you can simply use your finds as a treasure basket for them to investigate. Alternatively, toddlers and preschoolers might enjoy making a leaf collage or sticking other items to make a picture. You can also incorporate natural items into sand and water play.

Lock in the mess

With a zip lock bag, taped as an extra precaution, you can contain the mess of items like paint, jelly and water thickened with cornflour. Youngsters will enjoy squishing the materials inside the sealed bag and drawing shapes with their fingers. For extra interest, you can put other additions in the bag such as buttons, sequins, glitter, dried beans and lentils. Little ones will enjoy poking at the inclusions and moving them around the bag, though you should still carefully supervise young children with this activity in case the bag bursts.

These are just four examples of sensory activities that let you control the mess, but there are many more possibilities. Perhaps you have some favourite activities with minimal clearing up required that you’d like to share?

Make Paint Using 3 Common Kitchen Ingredients

Recently I bought a pack of Crayola washable and non-toxic paint and I’m sure many of you have done the same. The pack cost around £5 for four 240ml bottles, which was the cheapest I could fine online at the time. No doubt we’ll soon get through the paints, so I think we’ll try making our own paint again. I previously tried a finger paint recipe, but the end product was just too thick for painting, even though we still had some fun and got creative with the brightly coloured mush. Since then, I’ve found an alternative homemade paint recipe, which I used to represent ice cream sauce at messy play last week. The consistency looked ideal for painting with a brush and uses just three ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

Image by Prawny via Morguefile

If you’d like to give this paint a go too, see the recipe below and save the next squeezy bottle of ketchup or mayonnaise you finish for storing your paint. The recipe makes around 400ml of paint, so a 500ml bottle is ideal if you’re making just one colour. For a gluten-free version, you can replace wheat flour with cornflour.

1.       Mix one cup each of flour, salt and water in a jug, stirring well to produce a thin paste

2.       Add food colouring of your choice and mix, adding a little at a time to reach the shade you’re after

3.       Pour into your bottle, using a funnel, if you have one, to avoid spills

Enjoy!

The Wonders of Cornflour Gloop

At our first messy play group, one of the materials we explored was blue cornflour gloop, using it to represent seawater on our beach. There’s something special about cornflour gloop in that it doesn’t behave like you’d expect from a fluid. Although on first inspection the gloop appears to flow, if you touch it, the gloop thickens and with enough pressure becomes a solid. That’s the science over with!

Cornflour gloop in action!

Little kids – and adults too – are often mesmerised by this special fluid, making cornflour gloop a great material to use during sensory play. Even better, it’s so easy to make, as a coloured cornflour gloop recipe only has three ingredients and doesn’t require any heating.

If you’d like to make cornflour gloop at home, simply mix a 250g pack of cornflour with 200ml (7 fluid oz) of water, before adding liquid food colouring of your choice. You and your little ones are then ready to explore cornflour gloop’s amazing properties!

Using Food for Messy Play - Yes or No?

Sand, water, soil, paint and other craft supplies are popular materials for messy play, but what about food? Certainly, providers of messy play in West Cumbria and elsewhere use food items in their sensory activities, and when searching the internet for messy play ideas, I came across countless sensory trays set up with food. The first session for messy play near Whitehaven I’m planning is almost entirely food based too. However, using food for messy play is controversial, with some parents preferring to avoid the association between food and play. If I’m honest, I’m not entirely comfortable using food either, but it does offer certain advantages over other materials. So what are the main issues surrounding food in sensory play?

Using food appears wasteful

With over 1.1. million emergency food parcels given out in the UK by the Trussel Trust’s food banks during the last year, playing with food can does seem wasteful. Whether it’s rice, pasta, cereal, beans or custard, the food used in messy play could potentially have been eaten by a family in need. However, while food play perhaps doesn’t appear to value or respect foodstuffs, perhaps sensory play with food isn’t quite as wasteful as it first appears. Firstly, edible materials used in sensory play may not be used as intended, but they aren’t just being discarded; the food is simply used in a different way. Secondly, it’s possible to reuse dry food ingredients many times during messy play; I’ve done this with dry rice, pasta and oats at home. Thirdly, parents are unlikely to see the paint that goes into finger painting during their kids’ early years as wasted, so you can apply the same thinking to edible materials used for crafts and sensory activities, as the foods are aiding learning and development. Indeed, opting for foods in messy play can cost you less than expensive craft materials. Finally, the food used in messy play wouldn’t otherwise be going to someone living in hunger, so isn’t depriving them of food, but thinking about the implications of food play might encourage you to donate to a local food bank. A closing thought on this area is that no one discourages water play, even though 783 million people worldwide have no access to clean water.

Image by Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia Commons

Food play may hinder eating at meals

Although you might think that messy play with food encourages children to mess around at meal times, exploring foodstuffs can actually improve dietary intake, particularly in terms of the range of items eaten. Increased dietary variety is thanks to sensory food play giving little ones the chance to explore foods, so when they are more familiar with the appearance and texture of a new food, as well as their smell and taste, they are more likely to accept them. Messy food play is especially helpful for children with sensory needs, who often struggle to tolerate different textures, as during sensory exploration there’s no pressure to eat.

Foods pose a risk for children with allergies

Edible materials are a good bet for babies and toddlers who still put items in their mouths, but while foodstuffs are non-toxic, they may be risky for children with allergies. This may affect more children than you realise, as up to 8% of kids in the UK have a diagnosed food allergy. Labelling the allergens in sensory trays helps to inform parents so they can choose which activities their children take part in. However, as there’s always a risk of cross contamination, it’s perhaps safer to avoid the major allergens in sensory play. In the messy play group I’m starting up, my plan is to steer clear of milk, soya, eggs and nuts, as these are the most common allergens among youngsters.

Image by Quim Gil via Wikimedia Commons

If you don’t use food for sensory play, the two alternatives are materials found naturally in the environment and those that are manmade. However, neither offers a perfect solution. Like food, many natural materials are safe if mouthed, though if every family started to take sticks, stones, bark, leaves, flowers and pinecones in quantity, this could potentially impact on the ecosystem from which they are taken. Meanwhile, the production of synthetic items can leave a large footprint on the environment. Therefore, perhaps there’s a balance to be had. There are benefits for using food in sensory play, but it’s important to be mindful of it use, so using food alongside other safe materials is probably a good bet. 

Messy Play Still Beneficial for the Over 2s!

If you have children aged three or older, you may assume that messy play isn’t suitable anymore. By this stage many adults feel that their kids should be getting stuck into structured crafts, from which there is an end product. However, two isn’t the cut off for messy play, as sensory play still offers pre-schoolers a range of benefits. You might be surprised at the number of ways messy play can support learning and development in slightly older children.

Growing personally, emotionally and socially

Sensory play enables personal development. For instance, your little ones are in charge and take part in new experiences, which fosters independence and confidence. Kids also focus on tasks, aiding their concentration. They may loosely plan what they’re going to do with the materials and work out how they will achieve this, allowing your children to problem solve and see an activity through to its end. Youngsters can even use messy activities as an outlet for their emotions, letting your kids express their thoughts and feelings through this form of play. Additionally, messy play encourages social interaction, which helps children to understand the values of sharing, respecting others and working together.

Image by Maena via Morguefile

Enhancing communication and language

When sensory play occurs in a group setting, kids communicate with their peers through gestures and words, as well as observing and listening, which can make them more confident to interact with others. However, even when children engage in messy play in the home with their parents or carers, there are opportunities for conversation. For example, discussing what they are doing, what they might do next and their thoughts at the end. You might not realise it, but messy play also helps youngsters to develop fine finger movements and hand to eye co-ordination, which can aid writing.

Understanding the world

It’s in children’s nature to investigate the world around them and messy play provides them with the opportunity to do just that. Through messy activities kids use all their senses to observe, choose and manipulate materials that may be unfamiliar and have different properties to those that they are used to playing with. Sensory play also lets slightly older children to set themselves a challenge, solve it and learn about cause and effect along the way.

Developing physical skills

Image by Melodi2 via Morguefile

During messy play your little ones enhance their fine motor skills and co-ordination when they use tools, objects and materials. When they carry larger objects, sensory exploration helps with balance and body control.

Gaining creatively

Using their curiosity, children explore materials with their sight, hearing, smell and touch. They use their imagination and respond to experiences during sensory play. Messy activities additionally give kids the chance to express their thoughts and feelings as they get to grips with different colours, textures, shapes and space.Developing mathematical skills

Messy play helps with concepts such as numbers, size, shapes, space and patterns. Older children can count objects and get to grips with quantities by comparing the weight or volume of materials. Meanwhile, sorting and arranging objects can familiarise kids with shapes and space. Youngsters can additionally make patterns in clay, playdough, sand, soil and a range of edible materials, as well as with paints.

While Messy Play St Bees is only able to cater for the under 5s, your three and four year olds can come along and gain from the sessions too. This is ideal if they have younger siblings, as sensory play is an activity that children of various ages can experience and enjoy together.

What's Messy Play All About?

Learning takes many forms, but one of the most effective ways to learn is through experience. Getting stuck in is exactly what messy play is all about. Little ones need lots of hands-on experiences that stimulate multiple senses to learn about the world. Play with various materials is the perfect way for kids to get these sensory experiences.

Messy play lets young children get creative, allowing them to combine materials, play with them in different ways and make discoveries. Through this type of investigative play, children explore new textures, improve their hand-eye co-ordination and develop greater manual dexterity. Kids have real freedom with messy play, as there’s no right or wrong way to play, so they can use their imagination as they experiment. Choosing what they play with and what form their play takes means that sensory play helps to promote independence. With no set rules for messy play, it’s also very inclusive, so whatever their stage of development, children can join in.

Image via Wikimedia Commons by Miika Silfverberg

The possibilities for messy play are endless. A tray of cornflakes, custard and spaghetti offers three very different textures to explore and what happens when you mix them all together? Meanwhile, water play with jugs, cups and funnels gives kids the chance to measure and pour. When it comes to painting, why limit your little ones to a paint brush? Kitchen utensils like spatulas and whisks offer a different experience, as does printing with sponges, bubble wrap and vegetable cut outs.

However, children don’t need to get covered from head to toe in paint, sticky goo or soil, as relatively clean activities still come under the umbrella of messy play. Fun with bubbles and play dough creates little mess, but offers sensory stimulation. Dry materials, such as shredded paper and uncooked oats, rice or pasta shapes, can still be poured and mixed without the level of cleaning up that wet and sticky materials need.

Image via Wikimedia Commons by fir0002 flagstaffotos.com.au

Although you might have an idea about how messy you want your tot to get and provide an activity accordingly, with messy play it’s best to let your youngsters lead the way. If you go with a child-led approach, your baby, toddler or preschooler will soon show you how messy they like to get. Some kids relish squishing barefoot through jelly and getting up to their elbows in edible slime, while others like to proceed more cautiously. Whatever their preference, embrace it and let them get the most out of sensory play!

For messy play in West Cumbria, why not try out a session of Messy Play St Bees? We’re aiming to offer five different sensory experiences each month, based around a theme where possible. The first session begins on Tuesday 7^th June, so book your place for messy play near Whitehaven now via our facebook page.

Why Start a Blog About Messy Play?

I remember getting messy as a child. Painting, sticking, baking, playing with water, messing around with playdough and clay, helping in the garden, and there were many more messy activities besides. I'm sure most of you enjoyed similar activities.

Image via Wikimedia Commons by Ingvar Kjollesdal

If a 2014 Persil survey is anything to go by, it seems that kids don't take part in so much messy play now. The survey that polled 2000 parents of 7 to 11 year olds about messy activities revealed that two-thirds don't like their kids getting messy, preferring them to take part in clean activities. While most little ones jump at the chance to get messy, the survey also showed that parents' views may have a negative influence on their children's preferences for play. One-third of kids said that they didn't like getting dirty and more than half gave TV as their favourite pastime.

Ideally, messy play should be a regular activity for children, as this form of play is about more than just the fun that messy activities bring. Everything from feeling the squish of gloop and hearing the crinkle of paper to seeing a rainbow of brightly coloured objects and tasting while baking gives kids the chance to explore with their senses. This exploration then aids development, with children gaining physically, intellectually, creatively, socially and emotionally from messy play. Who would have thought giving kids the chance to get messy could offer so many benefits?

Messy play should come naturally. You don't really need classes for messy play, as there are plenty of opportunities for exploring a wide range of materials around the home and when you're out. However, as Persil's survey shows, parents often aren't keen on mess. Even if you don't mind your kids getting dirty, there are still the spills to mop up, the strewn bits and pieces to pick up, and the paint splatters to wipe away. If you take your children along to a messy play group, you don't need to worry about the mess. Taking part in a messy play session is also a great opportunity for tots to interact with other little ones, and you may even get to make some new social connections too.

Image via Wikimedia Commons by Bobjgalindo

If you live in a large town or city, there are probably a handful of messy play groups for you to choose from. However, living in a more rural area, organised messy play is more limited. While there are a small number of groups offering messy play in Cumbria, they are more dispersed, and when accessible sessions run, they don't necessarily fit in with when parents are available. For the activities they offer, messy play franchises can also seem expensive, and asking parents to sign up their kids for a block of sessions isn't particularly realistic when children are so young. That's what gave me the idea to set up a group for messy play near Whitehaven. After successfully trialling a "swamp" (green jelly, brown cornflour gloop and spaghetti snakes) with a few little ones we know from St Bees toddler group, and checking there was enough interest from families in the village, here I am, setting up a group for messy play near Egremont.

Sessions will run on the 1st Tuesday of the month from 2-3pm in St Bees Village Hall, located on Finkle Street. They are aimed at little ones aged 6 months to 4 years. While there is a charge, this group for messy play in West Cumbria is run as not for profit, helping to keep the cost down for parents and carers. With 15 children attending, the cost is £2 per child, and with 10 children, it's £3 per child.

We have a facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/messyplaystbeeswestcumbria/ - which you might be interested in. If you like what you see, please "like" and "share" to help spread the word about our group. The more people that know about our messy play in Cumbria and tell their friend about it, the greater the chance of we have of making our group a success. Thanks for your help!