91. BENEFITS OF ALLOWING YOUR KIDS TO BE MESSY & GET DIRTY A.K.A. LETTING THEM BE KIDS!

The Nurturing Parent, Respectful Parenting, Connected Parenting, Gentle Parenting, Toddlers, Overwhelmed Mom, Patience

Do you ever catch yourself cringing when you see your little one making a mess or getting dirty?

I do... Messy and sensory play is so beneficial for our littles but if I'm honest setting up sensory play seems overwhelming and I hate cleaning up!

But after this week's conversation with Amma, I was actually very excited to set up messy play opportunities and let my kids go out and get dirty.

Some simple and easy messy play ideas are

-water play

-sensory bins (with dirt)

-painting

Ways I implemented our conversation into my weekend

Saturday I let them dig in the dirt! I just gave them 2 little shovels and a space where they can dig to look for worms as I did some work in the backyard picking weeds. I invited them to help but they weren't interested... then we all showered after because they REALLY got dirty!

And Sunday while I folded laundry I set up a sensory bin with rice and hid little figurines inside. Both my girls age 3 &1 had so much fun discovering what was inside and then transferring the rice from container to container.

I had to take a deep breath when by the end of it, it was literally EVERYWHERE. But we cleaned it up together and everything was fine!

We had lots of fun, they were busy for about an hour with both activities, and I was able to get some things done!

Below are some photos of how it turned out. Ellie's face with actual dirt is just priceless and this rice which spread very far was cleaned up within 7-8 minutes as a team!

We hope you enjoy this week's episode mamas ❤️

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Original music ©Lisa K Sigurgeirson 1986