LET'S GET MESSY!

I sometimes get annoyed when parents come to collect their children and remark about them having paint or something on their clothes! In my humble opinion, young children should be dressed comfortably and practically rather than fashionably! My annoyance comes from the fact that I believe in MESSY PLAY!
                                       I have spoken before in my blogs about my battle with depression. Some days I live with it, others it lives with me. Part of my battle includes the famous OCD.Yes, I am that soldier. When my children were a lot younger they would be seen in public only if their clothes, hair, toys etc were scrubbed until they shone. Our house was a shrine to cleanliness and anti bacterial products. There were no ornaments, instead we went for the "minimal" look! Lots of therapy later, and here I am advocating getting messy! When I was in college many years ago our tutor brought out lots of flour, oil, salt and water and told us to make playdough...WITHOUT GLOVES! I was horrified!
                                        Every Monday in our classrooms we make playdough with the children. at first the staff didn't understand why we allow the children to make it, preferring to make it themselves and just let the children play with it. Children need to feel the texture of the flour, and the oil. they need to smell it, they need to get their hands dirty! and so what if they taste it? It's not going to kill them! GLOOP is a variation on playdough and is the MOST wonderful thing everrrr! Try it! It's just cornflour with a little water added, until it's dough-like. It's both a solid and a liquid at the same time!
                                         Do children make mud pies anymore? I used to love bringing mine out to the garden to dig holes and add water to make pies, and pretend to cook them in an imaginary oven. We try to have some form of messy play every day in our school. Yesterday we did finger painting and I ended up with finger prints all over my trousers! It was fantastic fun! A lot of people hate rain, but next time try going outdoors with your children in the rain and splash in every puddle and get good and mucky...it's brilliant! Or put large sheets of paper on your floor and make foot print pictures...The list is endless....
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Life is hard. There's time enough to grow up. Let children be children. Let them get messy, let them enjoy getting messy and having fun, and maybe keep sight of our inner child and let them get messy too!  :)


SharonAnn

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