Say Yes to the Mess – Benefits of Messy Play

Messy play is great for children’s development. It allows them to explore their senses, be creative, work on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and so much more! Messy play can also calm anxiety. It can also help children regulate their emotions and express their feelings. Activities such as building with blocks or logs, creating sculptures, and engineering structures help kids build problem-solving skills and teaches cooperation. Creative play increases confidence and can help encourage independent play as well.

If you’re like me, the idea of messy play might not be appealing. In order to allow your child to engage in messy play but also contain the mess and make clean-up easy, try the following ideas:

• Use a vinyl tablecloth and just toss at the end.
• Put the messy materials in a dry tub and allow your child to play there. When they’re finished, just rinse the mess down the drain.
• Buy a pack of oversized t-shirts for painting, etc.
• Take the mess outside in the grass if possible.
• Use a bin, large tray, or even an inflatable infant pool to contain the mess.
• Buy a plastic drop cloth in the paint aisle and spread on the floor.
• Use the sink for messy play.

Engage the Senses:

Sensory play is beneficial to kids for many reasons, and messy play provides lots of sensory experiences. Sensory play is any activity that stimulates any of your child’s senses: Hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste, balance, and proprioception. Children constantly use their senses to explore and learn, but sensory play is for specific sensory engagement that benefits their growing brains and bodies. 

Fun and messy sensory play ideas:

1. Bury treasure in a sandbox.
2. Make slime.
3. Elephant toothpaste.
4. Sensory bins.
5. Sound jars.

Unleash creativity.

Messy play allows children to express themselves in ways they don’t normally get to. Think color mixing, designing, building, squishing, painting, pretend worlds – there are so many possibilities. Here are some messy, creative play ideas:

1. Dump a pile of building blocks and see what they can create.
2. Use toothpicks and gumdrops or miniature marshmallows to create awesome structures.
3. Create cool ice sculptures.
4. Make this scented finger paint.
5. This sticky mud can be the scene of all sorts of imaginative play!

Calm anxious kids.

Some messy play activities can calm anxiety and reduce stress. Try the following activities with your anxious child.

1. Create a playdough sensory box. The feel of playdough is calming, and shaping it focuses the mind and helps calm anxiety.
2. Build a Lego fidget spinner.
3. Give your child a tray or bowl of rice with a few scoopers, spoons, and cups for transferring and pouring. You can even scent the rice with a drop of pure lavender essential oil for a more calming effect.
4. Make your own Lego fidget cube.
5. Let your child make his or her own glitter calming jar.