Here are some ideas for messy time activities:
- Jelly
- Cornflour
- Cooked Pasta
- Water
- Playdough
- Painting
Most parents avoid messy play in the home, due to the mess. Although messy play doesn’t have to be too bad if you contain it to one room; I started messy play with my daughter when she was 8 months; she loves it I put the activity in a washing up bowl on a bath towel, with the exception of play dough which went straight on the floor, obviously you can’t do this on a carpeted area. The clean up time is literally 2-5 minutes.
The Benefits:
- Language – you can encourage the child to describe it to you
- Role Play – this can be something like bathing a doll or making you dinner
- Improving manual dexterity – this basically means the use of their hands
- Emotional outlet – Your child can express his/her feelings without affecting anyone else for example they can punch play dough instead of you or another child
You can vary the activities by putting cars, spoons and other cooking utensils or whatever you want in, changing the colour, you can vary the texture by adding things like uncooked rice to them.