Last Updated on May 30, 2021 by Natalie
Messy play is great for children. It helps build coordination, fine motor skills, and can provide a completely child-led sensory experience. Sometimes, really great photographers can make it look beautiful and that is wonderful! However, most of the time, our messy play is just that. Messy.
As delighted as children are when allowed to explore as they desire, play can quickly turn from a cute activity into an ugly, glorious mess. However, there are many messy play benefits.
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Table of Contents
The Benefits of Messy Play
What is Messy Play?
Messy play is child-led play that allows the child to explore within the confines of the space provided (indoors and outdoors) and interact with what’s found in those spaces (mud, paint, playdough, glue, sand, water, etc). The child is allowed to play with the messy substances in his or her own way.
Left to their own devices, kids indulge in messy play. You know all of those photos of happy babies who have dumped the cereal of out of the box and are happily playing and eating their mess? Yep, that’s baby led messy play. It’s also an example of a baby developing their fine motor skills and advancing science. Tasting, touching, and throwing are scientific methods babies use to explore their world.
Try these easy messy play ideas with your babies, toddlers, and kids!
Why is Messy Play Important?
Messy play can also help develop spatial awareness and body control. When our porch tiles are wet, they are slippery. My kids love to slide around the tiles on their stomachs. They are using their arms and legs to propel them along. They also learn to not push too hard, so they don’t slide into the wall, door, or right of the porch into the grass. Additionally, they learn to safely navigate the slippery surface when walking, so they don’t fall down and get hurt.
Messy play also nurtures concentration. In a world with so many rules and distractions, messy play is blissfully free and lets a child explore on their own terms. Give a child something sticky, gooey, or spreadable and watch them focus and play their own way. Messy play gives a child freedom to explore. A parent accepting that there will be a mess and that the mess has benefits, relieves the burden of rules on the child. The only rules of messy play are your family’s safety rules.
Painting ice was a fun activity, but it sure was messy.
Messy Play isn’t Pinterest or Instagram Worthy
Messy play is so ugly most of the time. The children are happy and smiling, but my eyes often just see the terrible mess I have to clean up. Sure, the kids can help. I make myself let them help sometimes, even though their help isn’t always quite as helpful as I’d like. I’m not even that picky about the house being super clean. Sometimes, I just don’t want the mess to spread because that will involve more clean up and that’s tiring.
Messy play is supposed to be messy. I want the kids to indulge their sensory needs, their artistic creativity, and engage their senses. They concentrate on color mixing, when our play involves paint. They will work hard on the item they have to paint, whether it’s canvas, paper, Popsicle sticks, or ice. I see them hard at work, focusing on creative, sloppy, messy play. Often, paint all over their legs and arms. Mud always gets rubbed into their skin. The cornstarch for oobleck ends up everywhere. That stuff is like glitter.
Our messy play life is not Instagram worthy. It’s not eye catching or envy-inspiring, though it is real. There are beautiful moments, including those faces joyfully covered in the textures of the day’s artistic medium. The mud covers the floor on top of the paint that didn’t get completely scrubbed off from the day prior.
It’s not how I wanted them to play, but it’s how they wanted to play.
→Outdoor water play is great, messy fun when you are using a sand and water table!
My Expectations Can Spoil the Day for Everyone
My kids tend to take a messy idea and triple the mess. If I remain out of their way, they combine things I wouldn’t think to put together. If I don’t try to direct their play, they lead themselves and find the joy in learning. They combine colors. They will take my ideas one step further. And another step, for good measure. I watch them follow each other’s creative ideas and also continue to improve on their own ideas.
But I must stay out of the way, only supervising to keep everyone safe. And maybe to keep paint and mud off the stucco.
I love when they take my ideas for a craft and make them uniquely their own. We made leaf masks recently. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted them to do. I made my leaf mask my way and while I was doing that, my son found the duct tape and made himself leaf armor.
If I listen, I learn. I have to stop and listen. I can give the kids some supplies and an idea, but I have to turn off my expectations. It’s important that I let them create and explore. My expectations always get in the way of our fun. Sometimes, my expectations get me all riled up and I miss out on the day’s beauty. My expectations can spoil the day for everyone. I will miss out on being in the moment and watching the beauty of their creativity unfold in front of me.
It’s even better when you join them!
Messy Play Can Inspire Confidence in Kids and the World Around Them
I take photos of our messy play. I’ve been letting go of my need for control for a beautiful, pinterest and instagram worthy outcome. Instead, I let it be messy. I let my kids learn their way, to use and develop their own inherent creativity. I want them to be confident in themselves and in the world around us. Also, I want them to know their place in the world and be able to adjust as they grow.
Messy play is imperative for children. It is stimulating, tactile, and can assist in the development of fine motor skills. It can build spatial awareness. Hand and fingers muscles will get stronger. Little scientists can experiment and learn in ways that we can’t teach them. They can throw rice and watch gravity pull it to the ground. They can enjoy the sensory experience of running their hands through dry beans or smearing paint all over their bodies. Edible sensory play lets them explore tastes and textures with their mouths and hands. Messy play is so important, even though the photos won’t be Instagram or Pinterest worthy.
Let The Kids Play – Messy or Not
So whether that messy play involves mud, paint, oobleck, play foam, slime, or some other thing, I let them do their thing. I interfere less, as little as I can muster. The messy play is not for me, or Pinterest, or Instagram. It’s for the kids.
What’s your favorite messy play activity? Do you feel like social media has beautified childhood? The best feedback comes from my readers. Please leave a comment with your thoughts. Thank you!
