Messy play

Drawing, play dough, painting, playing in dirt, puddles... thats what I think of for messy play

Whats safe at his age then, considering EVERYTHING goes in his mouth (most recently a wasp.....oh the tears)

Playcentre has some awesome messy play receipes, like finger painting, gloop etc. They are all made with things from the pantry so are perfectly safe (although I am sure they would taste disgusting)!!!

Kids learn heaps from the textures that come with messy play. Yes it does make a huge mess, but if you are happy to get your hands dirty and join in, it is sooo much fun!

Gloop would have to be one of the coolest things to play with....I could play with it for hours lol!!!!

Also mixing things together like sand, water, flour, food colouring......makes for alot of fun and children can think of things way outside the square of what to add etc!!

I can provide some receipes if you are interested? They are easy peasy and would be totally safe for your little one!

We play either in the kitchen cos it has lino or in the lounge on a messy mat, I bought a couple of them off trademe that are huge, I think 1.5 x 1.5m. I think they were $12 including delivery. I can look up the seller if you like.

We use extra large sheets of paper as well, not sure exact size maybe A2, my DH is able to get off cuts from work, we have a massive roll of paper as well but I haven't got that out yet.

Food colouring and washing liquid in water is awesome, more an outside one though as it can stain.

Oh and just remember I use to give Spencer crayons in the highchair as well and a bit of A4 to scribble on, that way the worse he could do was draw on the tray and that comes off easy enough.

Can someone tell me - does food colouring stain their hands if its in home made playdough or gloop?

 

Heres one for Gloop:

2 cups of Maize Cornflour
1 cup of cold water

It looks wet and runny, but its actually sticky and thick!! Its the weirdest stuff!

To the cornflour recipe you can add a couple of drops of food colouring. It is awesome stuff because it washes off their hands (and yours) jsut with water. And for something different put it in a big bowl and pour boiling water in, stirring while you pour. Keep pouring and stirring and eventually it will change consistency and colour (will go from a pastel colour to a non pastel (what the heck is a non-pastel called??) as the cornflour dissolves). Obviously let it cool before playing with it, this makes a thicker stickier mixture.

Oh and a hint for playing with clay - take your rings off. It gets stuck in, and dries and is a bloody nightmare to get out again.

Oh and one more thing - just make sure you don't put too much dye in things, if you go overboard on the dye then yes they will end up with coloured hands.