In addition, mud and dirt games stimulate children and strengthen their immune system
When we touch and manipulate mud our mood improves. Mud baths or mud therapy not only improves our skin, but it is also something that directly affects our emotion and feeling of well-being. Although undoubtedly the great experts are the children. When playing with mud, children are happier, so they take every opportunity to enjoy the wet earth!
Let’s encourage children to play with mud
The truth is that handling mud has great benefits for children and that adults should certainly take note of. Its texture, its humidity, even its smell, make it a material whose sensory experience is really powerful and elevated.
Therefore, we will find children to whom mud, as a sensory experience, impacts them and, we could say, even costs them. It is simply a matter of respecting the rhythms and times of each person. The threshold of sensory stimulation is different in each person and it is important to offer the space and time necessary for that experience to be carried out from enjoyment and play.
When children handle mud they are happier
The Italian pedagogue Francesco Tonucci always comments that ‘clay is the prince of toys’. Because it is nothing, and it can be everything. And children know it well. Mud is a natural material available at any time of the year, although summer is undoubtedly a great time to enjoy at its best, where the heat and water invite greater enjoyment of the experience.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that since 2009 the International Mud Day has been celebrated on June 29, a day to give visibility to the importance of playing with mud, especially in childhood. Gillian MacAuliffe, from Australia, and Bishnu Bhatta from Nepal, were the initiators of the initiative when, at the Global Forum, they discussed ways to foster feelings of community, care and affection for the world around us. From there arose this initiative to get closer, leaving aside age, race or religion because covered in mud, we all look the same!
Child Health Benefits of Playing on Wet Soil
Recent research has shown that playing with mud improves the immune system and can prevent future allergies. Adults worry that they keep their hands clean at all times, but that leaves them helpless. Some scientists have discovered that mud dirt contains bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae.
This non-pathogenic bacterium can be found in the soil and has been found to be responsible for lowering stress and anxiety levels and increasing feelings of happiness.
Of course we are facing a sensory experience that childhood will remember and through which they will also grow healthy and strong.
Proposals for sensory stimulation games with mud
What if we created the tallest mud tower in history? Or do you prefer a cake with flowers? Clay, that versatile element can be transformed into hundreds of things when we let children interact freely with it. When they play with mud they not only work the sensory part, but also put into play the motor, linguistic, cognitive skills; They do science and math.
1. The chefs of Barro
The clay kitchenette is a classic. There are many proposals that are born from there and can be created from cakes, to a complete menu that is complemented and decorated with aromatic plants and other natural elements that they find in their environment.
They can play to create and write their own recipes, to elaborate a menu or a restaurant menu and even to give a masterclass on a recipe made with mud, creativity and nature. Measuring, weighing, explaining, sorting, time, selecting, decorating, writing… Of course, clay chefs will work on many skills while creating their tasting menus.
2. The tallest Mud Tower in history
Playing with mud has a very high sensory component whose stimulation includes smell (it has a peculiar smell), hearing (the sound of mud when handled) and mainly touch, where we receive great information about its texture, temperature, degree of humidity, concentration …
Creating clay towers is a stimulating and fun activity that brings us closer to all those qualities offered by this element. How tall will our tower be?
3. Pictures in puddles Any rain leaves puddles
. And if mud is the prince of toys, the puddle is king. Because in addition that water in winter can freeze. Taking advantage of the puddles left by the rains is another great opportunity to connect with nature and mud. If we also have some ingredient such as dried flowers, petals, small sticks … Our puddle can become a canvas and create floating paintings. A sensory experience with a high dose of concentration and enjoyment.
4. Characters of Barro
Clay becomes a great means of creative expression due to the large number of proposals it allows. It invites you to imagine, to create and for the little ones to explore their creativity. It is material to create large and curious characters that can be part of its symbolic game.
They can also include other types of objects in their games, such as animals, thus creating not only the characters, but also a whole game scenario or what is known as the game with mini-worlds.
5. Mud as a play
experience Allowing them to be stained, muddy, to give themselves their own ‘mud massage’, to build or even to paint with the mud itself offers children a great diversity of experiences that will undoubtedly take enjoyment as the main ingredient. In addition, the mud offers a feeling of freedom, being able to explore all its facets, being able to incorporate multiple learnings from the experience and creating happy and happy memories of childhood.
Undoubtedly, mud as a play experience is a proposal to be incorporated into all homes and all childhoods. Because we have already seen that there are multiple benefits and, without a doubt, great fun.
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