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.

Own image

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?

Own image

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!