Running from the Law: Messy Play

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Messy Play

A few weekends ago, Mac and I went to an event at our local early childhood center called "Messy Play." If you know Mac at all (or any toddler, really), then you know that "messy" means fun.  However, "messy" to a mom, just means messy.  I'm all about fun, but not so thrilled about having the "messy" be in my house, so we were thrilled to get out and get messy somewhere else.  The "Messy Play" event consisted of about 10 different rooms at school set up with 10 different messy activities for the kids - anywhere from play-doh to water tables to painting.  
(the one picture out of a hundred that he's actually looking at the camera)
We hit the Play-Doh first.  Mac mainly just wanted to squeeze it in his hands, but we also rolled it out flat and made it into shapes.  He liked cutting it with the kid-friendly scissors and didn't try to eat much of it this time.  This kept his attention for about 4 minutes.  
Next we moved on to multiple water tables filled with rice, pasta or beans.  Lots of little shovels, cups for dumping, sand toys, etc.  He absolutely loved this and probably would have stayed right here the entire time, had I let him. This kid is obsessed with filling cups, dumping them out and shoveling. He's in desperate need of a sandbox.
I have a feeling he is going to love the beach, next time we go!
Once this area got really crowded (and he was getting pushed around by bigger kids), we left to check out some of the classrooms.  This one had some kind of gluey white goop that stretched and also pulled apart and broke.  The teacher said it was made from Elmer's glue and liquid (laundry-type) starch.  I thought it was pretty neat.  
Mac was less than interested. 
He was, however, very interested in painting.  We love to paint at our house.  We have this same little paint set and we paint all the time in the bathtub.  He loved mixing the colors (purple is his favorite), painting his fingers and dipping the paintbrush in the water.
He is quite the artist.  
But what fun is painting when you can splash?!  Giant water tables filled with dyed water, boats, nets, fish, toys, etc.  This was by far the "messiest" portion of the whole messy play day - not because of the activity, but because of Mac's love of water and "dumping" it.  He wanted to splash and dump and make bubbles in the water, much to the chagrin of the parents of the children he was drenching in the process.  I'd say he soaked 8-9 children before I got him out of there.  Sorry!  
We moved on to the room where they were making Fruit Loop bracelets.  Mac walked in and said "SNACKS!" and proceeded to eat handfuls of cereal out of other kids' bowls.  We ran into neighbors in this room and Mac had to give Molly and Mara hugs and kisses when he saw them.  Such a player.
We also tried painting with shaving cream, but he kept trying to eat it thinking it was whipped cream.  
Honestly, his absolute FAVORITE part of the whole thing was the kid-sized accessible sinks.  He loved that he could reach the sinks, reach the soap, turn on the water and play around in them.  He would rather play in the sinks in each classroom than do any of the planned activities.  Add a kid-size drinking fountain and he was in heaven. 
Have you ever been to one of these events?
What's your child's favorite "messy" activity?  

18 comments:

  1. OMG we need something like that around here! An indoor area to scoop and dump sand? That's basically heaven for my kid. And endless bowls of snacks (I mean fruit loops for crafts), pretty much a winner.
    If you need a new beach to check out, I know Marcus would love to show Mac around a few of our favorites. :)

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  2. That looks like SO MUCH FUN!!

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  3. This looks like so much fun! What a neat event!

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  4. This looks like a great way to burn some energy! I assume Mac must love bathtime! :)

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  5. My toddler is obsessed with rice/sand tables too. She's getting a sand box from the Easter bunny this year. Lucky me.

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  6. This looks fun!!! Ive been wanting to make a sensory tub for C with beans and things in it, but I keep wondering where all that crap will end up in my house....

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  7. Now that is a great event! Sounds like something that would be fun for a birthday type activity too...on a smaller scale. I love that top picture, such a sweetie.

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  8. Carter would have loved this! Love the pictures of your busy little guy.

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  9. What a great idea!! I've never heard of an event like this, but it is oh so perfect for little ones. We have paint or play dough out at our house daily (and once there was unsupervised glitter use, which will not be happening again). Mac looks like he had a blast.

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  10. I am so glad to have found your blog. I feel like our sons are very similar in their likes and every time I read a post I'm like, "she gets it!!!" My son has an obsession with dumping things. Blocks, cars, rice...doesn't matter. You give him a bin of something and he says, "Dump it!!" and next thing you know it's all over the floor.

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  11. ok. this looks like a BLAST!! and the fact that someone else had to clean it up? even better!!

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  12. what a fabulous activity! Elyse would love this...but I'm not gonna lie, she's a little prissy! I've worked so hard not to make her that way, but once she realizes her hands are messy we have to wipe them off so she can start again! ha!

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  13. That sounds like such a fun event! And the hand washing...can totally relate. Mason is obsessed with washing his hands right now! He would LOVE that sink that is his height.

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  14. Seriously what a great idea!!! There's nothing better than your kid making a mess..somewhere where it's acceptable. I can't wait for the weather to be hotter so I can get E a water table too! Easy entertainment. I'm glad Mac had a good time!

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  15. That looks like such fun! I don't know of anything like that in my area, but I need to check into it.

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  16. It looks like a lot of fun! We've never been to an event like this, but if I ever see one in our area we're going! You just gave me some new ideas to try with Owen too -- I tried the shaving cream thing with my Kindergarteners (when I was still teaching) for letter and number practice, luckily they never tried to eat it, but I know Owen would!

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  17. This sounds like so much fun!! I'm going to have to look for an event like this when my little guy is older. Mac looks like he had a blast- sweet little face!

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  18. I wish we had one of these events nearby- looks like a ton of fun!

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