mud kitchen

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, SPRING
Mud Activities for Kids: 7 Creative Ways to Have Fun with Mud
- February 19, 2021
As parents, we see mud and only see a mess. But to children, mud is an abundant and attractive medium for creation, exploration, and adventure. Mud is fun! Playing with mud engages all the senses, encourages creativity, and creates long-lasting childhood memories. Now more than ever families need ways to keep kids safe at home and entertained in our own backyards. What’s for more to a child than giving them permission to get muddy! Today, we have Brandi Markham, Maryland teacher and mom of 3 here to share her family’s favorite mud activities for kids with you and lots of ways your kids can have fun with mud!

The magic and benefits of mud

Mixing soil, water, and other natural materials like pebbles, leaves, or grass provide children endless possibilities for learning and fun. Many of us parents have fond childhood memories of creating mud pies, digging for worms, or making streams and valleys in the mud. But it’s not just about fun. Children benefit from messy play, particularly muddy play. Mud play has also been associated with a range of benefits including increased happiness, improved well-being, stronger immunity, and a deeper connection with nature.

Now more than ever, kids need fun, safe and easy activities they can do in their own backyard. Playing with mud is definitely one of them! It’s a simple concept with tons of adaptability and allows kids to get dirty and creative! Kids will love having permission to get messy and parents will love the endless hours of unstructured outdoor playtime these simple mud activities provide.

Creating a mud play space

If possible, consider setting up a dedicated mud play space for your kids. Maybe in a corner of the yard that you don’t mind getting really messy! With kids, the mud probably won’t stay contained to one location, so consider where and why they’ll be moving around the yard when choosing a spot. They’ll probably need access to water, so a nearby water spout or hose is ideal. This also helps for clean-up.

If you have a mud kitchen, all the better to create some really amazing mud confections! You can buy a pre-made mud kitchen or make your own from wood pallets or an old desk or shelving unit. You could even just set up a table – kids are creative and don’t need much. Stock your mud kitchen with all kinds of old pots, pans, utensils, mixing bowls, and kitchen gadgets. You can usually find these things second-hand very inexpensive, so you’re giving extra life to these items.

If you don’t have a dedicated spot in your yard for a mud patch or a mud pit, it’s easy to create one! You can fill a plastic kiddie pool with mud so the mud is contained and won’t get all over your yard. You can also create a mobile mud patch by filling a wheelbarrow with mud, which can be moved around the yard, as necessary and easily emptied and hosed out.

Mud activities for kids

But kids don’t need to understand why this type of play is important to their development. What’s important is that we, as parents, provide opportunities for them to do it – and give them permission to get dirty! Mud play was a huge hit with my kids and even earned me the title “Best Mom in the World” from my son. So, before we get to International Mud Day on June 29th, read on to find out some fun and simple and fun mud activities for kids.

1. Mud pies

If your childhood was anything like mine, you already know all about the most classic way to have fun with mud – mud pies. Making mud pies is perhaps the most simple and creative way to play with mud. In order to make mud pies, all that is needed is mud and some old cups, pans, pie tins, bowls, or containers. Simply send those kids outside to the mud and let them loose! Watch your child’s creativity shine. My kids have used sticks, flowers, leaves, and anything else they find in the yard to decorate their mud pies. The options are endless.

2. Mud soup

Another simple way to have fun with mud is to make mud soup. For our mud soup, we pulled out the witch’s cauldron from Halloween and some spoons for mixing. If you don’t have a witches cauldron, don’t worry! Buckets, large mixing bowls or a punch bowl would all work just as well. Sticks are great for mixing. First, my kids started with dirt and added water to make the mud. Then, they added all kinds of special ingredients to make their mud soup especially tasty. They added leaves, sticks, mulch, water, flowers, seeds, pebbles, and anything else they could find. Mmmm…delicious!

3. Mud sculptures

Mud sculptures were a new idea for our family. This was one of my favorite mud activities because it involved art, as well as science. My daughter quickly learned that she had to have a certain ratio of mud and water in order for her sculpture to stand. So building mud sculptures was as much a science experiment as it was creative play. If you have clay-heavy mud in your area, all the better for this one. You can also add some modeling clay to your mud to help with the consistency.

Kids can get as creative as they want with this activity. Mud sculptures can be anything from figures, shapes, mud animals. Try building a mud house using mud bricks. Feel free to add sticks, leaves, flowers and more to those sculptures to make them extra awesome! Older kids may be better at this activity, but it’s simple enough for even little kids. If you have kids in the early years, they’ll enjoy just squishing the mud between their fingers. Let the older kids make the sculptures and then let the little ones destroy them!

4. Mud painting

Another fun art project to do with mud is mud painting. This can be done in several ways. We simply took white paper outside and used our fingers to paint with mud. Handprints were a big hit, of course. The kids also painted pictures of houses and animals. This would but a fun activity to do on a light-colored sidewalk or wall outside if possible.

If you want to get extra creative, try adding some powdered food coloring to your mud to create mud paint. Then you could use paintbrushes or sponges to paint with your colored mud. Mud paints are a fun way to play in the mud and still be artsy and creative. Let the kids have fun and see what they make!

5. Muddy car wash

Creating a muddy car wash was a big hit for all of my kids. They enjoyed driving their cars around the backyard to cover them with dirt mud so they could visit the car wash. In order to create the car wash, we added some dish soap to a bucket of water. Then the kids used one of their doll brushes to scrub their cars clean. We even had to refresh the water a few times because they had so much fun with this simple activity.

This can also be done with larger cars (think Tonka Trucks) or even with bikes and tricycles. Let the kids ride their bikes through mud puddles and get as dirty as possible, then go through the mud car wash to get them clean! This is a super easy, fun and creative way to let the kids play in the dirt and enjoy outdoor play time.

6. Mud bath/spa

Ok, are you ready for the mother-lode last two muddy activities for kids? These next two mud play activities for kids may be a tough sell for some parents, but I guarantee they’re going to be a BIG hit with your kids. Both these activities require a LOT of mud and a LOT of clean-up, but they’re also going to create some epic memories, amazing opportunities for photos and SO MUCH FUN.

If you’re feeling adventurous, create a mud bath or mud spa for your kids. This activity is probably best saved for a warm day. You can create a mud bath/spa at home in the backyard or even at the beach in sand. For their mud spa, my girls dug a big hole in the sand and filled it with water. Next, they took turns covering each other with mud. This was great at the beach since they could run to the water to clean off afterwards, but it could be done just as easily at home with a water hose or sprinkler. If you’re at home, try filling a kiddie pool with mud and letting them take a mud bath. That way the mud is contained. This is sure to be a big hit for the kids!

7. Mud sliding/pit

Finally, one of the best, but messiest ways to have fun with mud is to create a mud pit or mudslide! If you’re playing in a big patch of mud for any of these activities, then this is probably inevitable anyway. The kids will enjoy running and sliding, digging and jumping in the mud. Don’t be afraid to let them go! Dress them in clothes that they can get as muddy as they want, so you’re not worried about them ruining anything. Just be sure to have a hose ready for clean-up and towels available to dry off.

Fun with mud

What are you waiting for? Now it’s time to head outside, let the kids go, and live it up…we have nowhere else to be right now. I promise the smiles will be worth it.

And if you just can’t stomach the thought of your kids getting this mess and dirty, but still want to give them a fun sensory activity, try making this fairy mud from Happy Hooligans from toilet paper and soap!

What is your child’s favorite mud activity?

About the author

Hello, I’m Brandi! My husband & I live just outside of Washington, DC with our three littles. They are my favorite people in the world & my biggest inspiration. I am a full-time elementary teacher & a part-time photographer, but mostly I enjoy photography as a hobby. I love chocolate, animals, & nature! Summer is my favorite because we get to spend all of our time outdoors!

You can find more from Brandi in the following locations:
Instagram: @brandimarkham
RWMC posts: Brandi Markham
INFORMATION, OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Creative Backyard Play Spaces for Kids
- June 24, 2020
We’re all spending a lot of time at home these days. And while that’s fine, we need to make sure a significant portion of that time is outdoors. Kids need outdoor playtime and the good news is that they can usually make the most of whatever outside space they have. This could be anything from a backyard, to a doorstep, a rooftop, a balcony, patio, or driveway. Today, we have the amazing Jemma of Thimble & Twig, London teacher and mom of 4, showing us how to make creative backyard play spaces for kids that encourage play and time outside!

The importance of time outside

Time outside is so beneficial for little ones, as is unstructured free play. Combining playtime and outdoor space means that kids can learn as they play. Outdoor play can help kids to become inventive, explore, and learn about the world around them. While they’re inventing and playing games with siblings or friends, they are improving their communication skills, learning about compromise, and how to negotiate. There are so many amazing benefits to unstructured free play outdoors.

However, not everyone has an outdoor space that encourages unstructured free play. Your outdoor space may not feel inviting to kids or inspire their imaginations. But, it doesn’t take much to change that! With a few simple changes or updates to your outdoor play area, you can create a space that encourages open-ended unstructured playtime and sparks your child’s imagination.

Creating outdoor backyard play spaces

Below, we’ve listed a few creative backyard play spaces and areas that you can incorporate into your backyard, patio, deck, balcony or any outdoor area. These can be interpreted and reinvented in a number of ways, based on your space, budget and age/interests of your kids. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on your outside space to make it more kid-friendly. A lot of the ideas below can be created cheaply or at no cost at all.

Climbing space

A climbing space is a great activity and form of exercise which uses every muscle in the body, and many, many parts of the brain! Climbing is awesome for children’s minds, bodies, and coordination. Kids love climbing, so it’s a good idea to include some sort of climbing space in your outdoor play area.

A climbing frame is amazing, but you could equally create a great climbing space out of old tree trunks, wood pallets or old chairs. If you have a strong wall in your garden or a fence, let your kids climb on it. Allow tree climbing or set up a rope climber. You could also use these climbing holds to create a climbing wall along a fence or the side of your house!

Digging space

Digging helps kids get immersed in imaginary worlds – they can pretend to dig to Australia or make sandcastles and fairy houses. The physical act of digging can strengthen hand muscles (needed for holding a pencil and handwriting) and improve hand-eye coordination.

Try to include a simple digging area in your outdoor play space to make your garden fun for kids. You could include a sandbox with buckets and shovels or a muddy digging area with toy cars. Set up a garden area where the kids can plant veggies and help dig up the weeds. Give them an area to dig for worms or look for rolly-pollies.

Water space

The best parenting advice I ever received was to “just add water” whenever kids were getting antsy or grumpy! If ever my son is feeling restless, I give him a squirty bottle of water and send him water the flowers! This simple task turns into a game and unstructured free play, which can occupy him for hours!

It makes sense that kids would love any kind of water space in a garden or backyard. You can start with a bucket of water and some pots and pans for mixing and stirring. Give them a hose and let them wash their toy cars (or your car!). Set up a water table or fill up a plastic sandbox with water. Add a kiddie pool or a sprinkler. Make an easy water wall out of plastic recycling – kids will love the pouring action! Add some funnels and this would be great for the hot summer months ahead! If you need more inspiration, see our favorite water games here!

Growing space

Another great element of a kid-friendly backyard is a space where kids can experiment with growing their own flowers, fruits and/or vegetables. Give them some compost (or let them help with the composting process), a few pots, dirt and seeds and let them loose planting. Talk out your plan, but let them decide where to plant and position their pots.

If your kids plant the seeds themselves, they’ll be much more likely to care for the plants. Give them a hose or a child-sized watering can and they’ll be prepped to love on their garden! If you’re feeling more adventurous you could add a vegetable or fruit garden. You can check out our post for ideas for the easiest and best kid-friendly vegetables!

Small world space

Kids love a space to have imaginary made up adventures with their toys. Tiny things fascinate kids, so a “small world” space it’s a great thing to add to an outdoor area. Depending on what your kids’ likes and interests are, there are countless ways to tailor a small world space just for them. There are some brilliant ideas in this Fairy Garden post and we have a great post on creating a dinosaur garden for kids.

If your child is into cars, trucks or trains, you could create a small space with roads where they can play. Using simple masking tapes or washi tapes – you could create a whole town for them to play with their cars! If your kids are into tractors, create a space where they can dig and create with their toy diggers, which will help develop their imaginations. Or using water and sand you could create a small world beach area with toy fish and sharks. The possibilities are endless!

Creative space

Incorporating art into the outdoors makes so much sense. It’s less messy and much easier to clean up for a start! Spread out a sheet and let your kids go wild with paints. Put the paints in a spray bottle and let them squirt or turn mud into paint (just add food coloring to mud) and let them play! Set up an outdoor chalkboard or an easel for them to draw to their heart’s content. Another easy way to let kids get creative outdoors is to give them a cardboard box to paint on! If you have a fence, try using washable chalk or chalk paint and when they’re finished with their masterpiece, they can wash it away with a paintbrush or the hose. No fence, just use the chalk on the sidewalk or the driveway! It’s a classic and well-loved kid-friendly activity for a reason!

Muddy space

Kids love nothing more than getting muddy and playing with mud is a great textural sensory activity. If possible, give your kids a little patch in the yard to dig in. No dirt? Get some potting soil and fill up a kiddie pool with it! Add some simple shovels, pans and bowls with mud in to mix and stir. You can create a mud kitchen with pallets if you want a more permanent place for kids to be able to mix, create and make potions. Or there are plenty of mud kitchens available on the market. My kids love making concoctions and creations in their mud kitchen! Check out our mud kitchen post for tons of ideas of mud kitchen recipes and potions. Or this post has 7 awesome & fun ways to play in mud.

Amazing backyard play spaces for kids

These are the basic elements for creating some super fun backyard play spaces for kids in your own yard that will encourage outdoor unstructured free play. Adding elements like these to your space will provide a safe and secure outdoor play and learning area for kids close to home and keep them entertained. Hopefully, this has given lots of creative play ideas for garden and backyard spaces to make them truly exciting for kids. Try adding a few of these and they’ll want to play outside all day long!

About the author

Jemma lives in London, England with her husband and kids. Her all-time favorite thing to do is take photos and capture memories of her family. She’s on a mission to ensure parenthood doesn’t rush by so quickly by creating mini family outdoor adventures and hopefully some big adventures too, one day! She’s a mum to four and an English teacher to many. She loves sharing her passion for storytelling, adventures, and nature crafts on her blog and here.

Find more from Jemma in the following locations:
Instagram: @thimbleandtwig
Blog: http://www.thimbleandtwig.com
Facebook: @thimbleandtwig
Etsy shop: ThimbleandTwig
RWMC posts: Jemma
GARDENING, OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
How To Design A Backyard Dinosaur Garden & Mud Kitchen
- November 5, 2018
Have you ever wanted to create an outdoor play area for your children? Today we have an incredibly creative New Zealand mom of two here giving us all the details on how to design a backyard dinosaur garden and mud kitchen for kids. From idea inception to reality, Catherine and her husband designed and built a fun and unique space for their son to play. This dinosaur garden and mud kitchen combines his love of dinos with getting dirty. It incorporates natural elements and fosters independent play and creativity. Perfect for kids of all ages and can adapt as the kids get older.

Creating a dinosaur garden

When our son was turning 3, we wondered what to give him for his birthday. Our family values experiences and gifts that are not just toys. In theory, this a lovely idea. However, in reality, it can often leave us scratching our heads to come up with a special gift to mark the occasion. My husband and I focused on our son’s areas of interests and the things that have been quite sustained in his play. While there are many things our busy, curious 3 year-old is interested in, we decided to hone in on two of his favorite things: dinosaurs and playing outside in the water and mud!

We wanted to combine these two passions into a flexible play space that could evolve and grow with him, but we weren’t quite sure how to go about bringing those ideas together. I turned to good old Pinterest to do some research and create an inspiration board. I found some beautiful images of sensory gardens and natural play spaces for children. Many of these spaces incorporated the same elements we were thinking about. Thus, the idea for a dinosaur garden with mud kitchen was born!

Coming up with a plan

In our vision for a flexible play space we wanted to encourage:
- imaginative play
- sensory experience
- exploration of natural resources (e.g. wood, rocks, plants, water, dirt, etc.)
- language development
- independence in his play (not relying on us to play with him)
- social play opportunities (when friends visit)
Planning began in earnest, which to be fair was the exciting part of the process for me. I love dreaming, researching, collecting inspiration and drafting plans! Our budget for this project was fairly tight (under $200) for the entire space and all materials. While we were really inspired by the elaborate setups we saw online, we knew that we had to be resourceful with things we already had or that we could buy cheaply.

Location, location, location

One of the first things we did was to pick out a location for the dinosaur garden. I think this was a really important part of the process because the size and scale of the space guided our decision making on the design of the garden. Originally, I envisioned a large scale garden, complete with water feature and all the bells and whistles. However, we quickly realized that this would encroach too much of the rest of our yard and would go beyond our budget. We reined in our design to fit the space we chose and planned accordingly.

Designing our space

After we picked out the location for the garden I drew up a design plan. We knew we wanted to have varying levels, greenery, mud, and water. We also wanted to include open-ended resources such as rocks and tree stumps in the space to encourage imaginative play. This sketch was the first of many plans we drew up as we talked through the practicalities of bringing our vision to life.

Adding natural elements

Once we had a rough idea of the design, it was time to get resourceful. We looked through our garden and garage to see what materials we already had that we could incorporate into the garden. Around our property, we have many large pebbles and stones. We decided to paint them and use them in the garden. The rocks promote color recognition, counting, physical strength (moving them around) and imaginative play (i.e. they could be used as dinosaur eggs). We also found old bricks that we could use to build a mud kitchen. This would compliment the dinosaur garden.

Our final list of materials for the dinosaur garden and mud kitchen included the following items:
- pebbles
- bricks
- plants (ground cover)
- sheet of wood
- wood pieces
- soil
- sand
- paving stones
- acrylic paint
- coat hooks
- kitchen utensils
- dinosaurs
Prepping the garden

My husband created 3 mounds of dirt onto which we planted various types of moss and ground covering plants. We visited our local garden center and easily found the types of plants we were after. We bought about 15 plants (5 per mound) of various sizes. Some plants were more expensive than others. We tried to purchase the cheapest, hardiest ones we could.

Around each of the 3 mounds of dirt, my husband created a central space and miniature pathway. These paths wound around the mounds and give our son plenty of space to be in amongst the garden. He covered this small pathway with sand to create a different texture and to combat the issue of the space becoming overly muddy or waterlogged.

To paint the rocks, I bought 5 test pots of paint from our local hardware store. I asked at the paint counter for advice on what kind of paint to use. They recommended a general purpose acrylic paint. I didn’t want to have to use multiple products to paint the rocks, so this was an easy one-step solution. My only preparation was to wash and dry the rocks, then apply 2 coats of paint!

Adding a mud kitchen

We decided to create a mini mud kitchen next to the dinosaur garden so that water and mud could be used in the imaginary play. To create the mud kitchen, we built 4 stacks of bricks approximately 5 bricks high and placed a sheet of wood over the top to create a table top. Above the mud kitchen “sink,” we screwed a coat hook rack to the fence to hang various utensils. In front of the mud kitchen, my husband laid 2 large stone pavers with a brick border. This stable surface is perfect for the children to stand on and prevents the area from getting water-logged.

Future plans

We wanted to create a space that our son could enjoy and get a lot of pleasure out of right now, but also give ourselves the opportunity to add and adjust the garden as he gets older. The structures and creations are not permanent and everything can be moved or added to in the future. We have a large tree next to the dinosaur garden that I would like to encourage the children to use more in their play. We may try to incorporate the tree into the space (a small platform perhaps) as we see how it’s used. Over winter, we plan on creating and adding some bird feeders to hang in the trees to attract bird life to our garden. We have also thought adding other sensory elements to the space such as a natural wind.

Words of wisdom

If you’d like to create your own outdoor play space for your child, my parting words of encouragement to you is to go for it! I suggest you start by considering the age and interests of your child and come up with an idea that is “unconventional” and customized for your little one. There are so many possibilities and the inspiration is endless! Overall, our project was straightforward and simple to execute. At the end of it, we felt like we had created something really unique and special for our son. It gives us so much pleasure seeing his genuine love and enjoyment of the space and will provide endless hours of unstructured outdoor imaginative play.

Have you ever considered creating an outdoor space for your child?

I’m Catherine, wife and stay at home mum to two beautiful boys who are 3 years old and 10 months old. We live in New Zealand and spend our days outside playing in the garden, reading and visiting the zoo. I’ve dabbled in photography since I was 17, but I’ve been properly using my Canon DSLR camera for about 2 years now. You can find me most days on Instagram @everydaymamma sharing my thoughts on photography and being a mum, come and say Hi!