an edible (ish) mud farm + a few fave books make for a perfect spring day
/Spring is finally here and while it's still quite cold in Tasmania, the sun is out and we're loving being outside.
I'm always on the lookout for new ways to make mess and have fun with the kids, especially outdoors, and found a bit of inspiration while spring cleaning the shed—a shallow plastic container that looked like the perfect size for a mud farm.
I'd had my eye on a muddy farm sensory play activity from The Imagination Tree for a while, so thought I'd give it a try, with minor adjustments to this original recipe:
- chocolate pudding mix
- shredded wheat
- rosemary
- plastic farm animal toys
- plastic and metal tubs
- sponges, bubbles and water
We didn’t have pudding mix on hand, but cocoa + flour made perfect dirt and with some weetbix, a bit of cut grass, the shallow bowl for a pond and our animals rounded up, we were ready to play!
It was great fun and opened up a whole world of farm/animal play. Ivy made 'rain' with a spray bottle and Angus kept putting animals in the pond. They both loved getting muddy—and the ‘mud’ was safe to eat (!) which meant less time supervising and more time playing. Then, when we were done, we set up an animal bath and used sponges to clean up (as per Ivy and the little pig in the top pic).
I can highly recommend this sensory and mentally stimulating play activity and I'd love to hear from you about more ways to make a mess and have fun with kids!
Also, you might like to check out these lively link-in books. They're favourites in our house: easy-reading animal-themed entertainment for bedtime or anytime—great for bubs to about 6-years-old.
