The childhood stage is characterized by a child’s curiosity and desire to play in the mud. Children love the feeling of squelching mud through their fingers and toes. With mud in their hands, children feel they can create or mold anything they desire. To say the least, mud makes children gloriously happy.
Fortunately, playing in the mud can play an instrumental role in helping a child learn. Below are 7 reasons why a child should be allowed to play in the mud.
Playing in the mud is good for the brain. The children will invent countless games, ideas and creations while playing in the mud. During this unstructured, outdoor play, the children are not merely exercising but building their ability to form ideas, think critically, solve problems, as well as being innovative and inventive.
As the children play in the mud, it helps them achieve key developmental milestones including fine and gross motor skills, balance and coordination as well as sensory awareness. Mud play creates opportunities for the children to practice social skills hence helping them to make sense of the world.
While the children are playing in the mud, squelching and sloshing around, they are not only challenging themselves but also expanding their experiences and their world. This instills and nurtures constructive foundational style of risk assessment and critical thinking. Consequently, it builds and strengthens their attitudes and values toward adventure. These important skills can be carried through to adulthood.
Playing in the mud is a foundational activity that helps the children develop strong and empathetic connection with their natural environment. This way, the children will relate with and understand their immediate environment much better.
Playing in the mud helps the children develop better sensory skills. Playing outside involves uneven surfaces, branches, rocks, holds and unstable surfaces such as gravel, mud and sand. Therefore, it calls for balance, dexterity, agility, and depth perception.
As children grow, they get in constant touch with an outside environment that is dynamic and ever-changing. Such environments are outside our control. Therefore, the mind of the children have the room to wander, look and observe.
From TV, books, movies, and apps, many children know a lot about sharks, dinosaurs and pandas. However, exposing them to the real world gives them an opportunity to learn about their immediate ecosystem. They are able to lear n about the names of plants and animals within their neighborhood.
In a nutshell, allowing the children to play in the mud has many benefits. Give the child a room to play in the mud and be in touch with the real world. It is advisable for a parent to create a small garden for the children so that they can benefit from the act of playing in the mud. Additionally, a parent ought not to discourage the child getting dirty because doing so means placing limits on the child’s creativity, ingenuity and hunger to explore.
I’m Tim Carter, a thirty something year old, husband, father, childcare owner, and chocolate brownie lover. I believe children deserve better and only hope this blog will create a little change.
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