muddy play – more fun in our mobile mud-pit

Posted on May 30, 2012 by happyhooligans

You may recall that last year, after seeing all of the gorgeous mud-kitchens out there in the blogosphere, I used our wheel-barrow to create a portable mud-patch last year for the Hooligans (you can see the original post here).

Well, re-creating that mud-patch has been on my mind for days, and yesterday when my feet hit the floor at 6 a.m., and the air in the house was already thick and muggy, I knew the day to do it had arrived.

When the Hooligans arrived, I hauled out the old wheelbarrow and dumped a generous amount of clean potting soil into it. Then I called to the Hooligans bring some sand from the sand-box. They’d been watching me, and were oh-so-curious about what I was doing, so they were only to happy to jump into action. They ran back and forth from the wheel barrow to the sandbox delivering and dumping small pailfuls of sand until we figured we had enough. Then they stirred it all up with their shovels while I was setting up their water supply.

A water jug with a spigot is without question one of the best things we’ve ever added to our outdoor play-space. I often see them at our local thrift shop. We don’t have it ours often (although I suppose we should in this weather), but it comes out on days like these, and the Hooligans LOVE it. The spigot is a bit stiff and provides a challenge for little hands to manage, (think muscle development and motor control) and they love having complete control over their own tap and water source!

After adding enough water to make a great, sloppy mess, they brought cars, trucks and tractors from the sand box to add to the mud-pit, and I set up a “baking counter” by placing a long board and some baking utensils and “ingredients” at one end of the wheelbarrow.

What great, messy fun! At the end of the day, the mud-patch gets wheeled away to the shed, and we can pull it out another day.

Now what to do with those muddy kids? Click here to see how they cleaned up.

muddy car wash

Posted on May 26, 2012 by happyhooligans

Oh, we’re loving our wet and messy play now that the summer weather has arrived. Did you pop by yesterday? Did you see the baby bath station that we had set up in the backyard? We set it up again today because it was such a hit, and because a couple of the Hooligans don’t attend on Thursdays and they missed out on the fun. I also added another awesome, wet, messy, sensory activity today that kept them happy morning! Behold the MUDDY CAR WASH!

I turned our wagon into a mud pit by mixing up some potting soil, several scoops of sandbox sand, and a bucketful of water. (you can see how we’ve used a wheel-barrow to make an even larger, mobile mud-pit)

Then several feet below and away from the wagon, I placed a large basin filled with soapy water, and I ran our hot-wheels tracks from one to the other.

I set some cars up at the mud-pit and called the gang over. You can probably guess how popular this activity was. They LOVED it!

The basin of water didn’t stay clean for long, but that made things even more fun; they had to search around in the black water to find their cars, and the cars didn’t exactly zoom down the track with all that mud either, but the Hooligans didn’t even seem to notice. They were happy to push them along until they reached their destination.

Now, be prepared: your little one COULD get very dirty. I’m not saying he or she will. In fact, a couple of the Hooligans stayed quite clean. Even Miss Mess wasn’t too bad, although I did give her clothes a soapy rinse before sending them home.

This little guy however…

Look at him! Think he had fun? Oh yeah! And it was so cute: I set out a big bowl of water for them to wash up in when they were finished, and he did – he washed his hands until they sparkled and then came running over to me, proudly shouting “I’m clean, I’m clean!”, and looking like this:

Yup sure, little guy. Whatever you say!

I feel I need to share this next photo for those of you who might be horrified by the state of his clothing. I tossed them onto the grass (the clothes, not the kids), sprinkled them with some dish soap, and gave them a blast with the garden hose. In less than a minute, they looked like this.

See…. don’t let a little dirt scare ya! Let them get messy! They’ll love you for it! And of course, if you’re looking for a cleaner-but-still-messy alternative to this activity you can always do this version of a car-wash.

mobile mud patch

Posted on August 28, 2011 by happyhooligans

Use a wheebarrow to create a mobile mud patch in your yard!

Today, I bring to you our mobile mud patch! Now, we’ve made a lot of mud pies in our day, and it’s always great fun.

Our recipe for mud:

I mix up a bucket of the black stuff using 2/3 potting soil, 1/3 sand, and a generous splash of water, and we usually just put down a plastic table cloth or large sheet of cardboard and get straight to work.

We use old kitchen utensils for scooping and mashing and splatting, and we decorate our pies with flowers, stones, pinecones, sticks etc.. A fun way to kick off the activity is to give each child a bag or bucket, and head out on a neighbourhood treasure hunt, collecting “ingredients” for decorating.

This year, we took mud play to a new level after I found Let the Children Play, and discovered all the different ways that Jenny and her readers had their children playing with mud. Their mud kitchens and mud pits had me green with envy, and got my wheels turning.

We filled our wheel-barrow up with a healthy helping of mud and added shovels, scoops trucks and diggers and made ourselves a mobile mud patch. A piece of wood for a ramp, and ta-da…we had a quarry. I placed a short plank across one end of the wheel-barrow, and put out utensils, dishes, sticks, flowers, stones etc. and that served as a counter for creating pies and cakes.

Add “running water” to the yard with a container and spigot that children can control:

I wanted the children to have access to water as they needed it, but a blast from the garden hose into the mud can be a little disastrous, so I brought out the water-jug that we take camping. The spigot was easy enough for even the littlest hands to turn off and on, and the Hooligans LOVED having complete control over “running water” in their play area.

Another great idea that I borrowed from a post I saw on Let the Children Play, was a “brick-laying” activity. We’ve had a stack of old bricks sitting behind our shed for years. I set a bunch of them out on a vinyl table cloth with trowels and spatulas and a big bowl of mud, and the kids had a blast slapping on the mud, and stacking the bricks.

Even my own great big Hooligans got in on some of the action.

Playing in the mud, and getting dirty are such an important and unforgettable part of childhood. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of squishing your toes in it, and squeezing it through your fingers, and for little ones, there’s always the thrill that comes with simply getting messy.

Drop us a line and let us know how your little ones play with mud. We’d love to hear how you have fun getting messy in your yard!