Mums don’t like to get messy, but kids absolutely do. I’ve found that the messier I let my kids get, the happier they are, even though it causes my left eye to twitch uncontrollably and makes me grumpier than a bear being woken after a very long winter. It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?!
The bear thing has always seen me avoid messy play. I just haven’t been able to overcome my innate sense that things must be orderly and aesthetic at any given moment in time… until these holidays. I honestly don’t know what’s changed, but perhaps telling that bear to pull her socks up and put the little cubs first has helped enormously. That and this sensible post by my mate Kate at Picklebums. So, lucky for the kids and (as it’s turning out) surprisingly lucky for me, we are ALL OVER the messy play right now.
Here’s all the messy deliciousness we’ve got to choose from these holidays:
Dig our hands in
1. Make some oobleck!
2. Ooze into rubber slime
3. Here’s a glitter slime version
4. Find number nine on cloud dough
5. Play with shaving cream
6. Get our glitter on with playdough
Get our art on
7. Draw on the driveway with fizzy chalk paint
8. Do the puffy paint thing
9. Try our hand at explosive art
10. Paint something other than our nails
11. Use salt for painting… interesting!
12. Glue some beans
13. Rock and roll the paint
Cook and stuff
14. Make some salt dough beads
15. Bake somegingerbread biscuits
16. Make our fave honey jumbles
17. Construct a bouquet of fruity flowers
18. Bake some face biscuits
19. Make Jamie pizzas
Get down and dirty
20. Make a worm farm
21. Plant some veggies
22. Build a mudpie kitchen
23. Build a fort
24. Plant some bulbs
25. Make some mud soup