Reflections on the Art of Muddy Play: The Mud Kitchen
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/28169344.6Keywords:
Muddy play, Mud kitchen, outdoor education, attitudes, storytellingAbstract
Due to Covid-19, much time and effort are dedicated to sanitizing at home and school. While we strive to protect children, we must re-examine the messages they receive about dirt and muddy play. Are we inadvertently prejudicing them against “unclean” entanglements that may afford them more significant learning opportunities? In this paper, I offer my experiences exploring the language of mud and its relationship with play, language, and learning for my four-year-old son. I explore how a mud kitchen can offer caregivers and children a space for collective inquiry in a post-pandemic world. This paper suggests that caregivers’ attitudes towards mess impact children’s openness to muddy play. Also, it highlights that muddy play can be a learning tool to encourage self-expression and teach personal hygiene and cleanliness. I discovered that storytelling normalizing muddy play positively impacted levels of engagement in the mud kitchen. I believe my findings demonstrate the value of mud for developing children’s resourcefulness, curiosity, responsibility, empathy, and self-reliance. My findings emphasize that children can thrive within discomfort with strategic support and compassion from caregivers. I hope that my experiences of muddy play can invite educators to reimagine educational engagements for the future.
References
Baker, M (Director). (2019, July 30). Muddy Festival (Season 6, Episode 15). In Peppa Pig. Astley Baker Davies.
Brian, J., & James, A. (2014). I’m a Dirty Dinosaur. Kane Miller.
Kind, S. (2018). Collective improvisations: the emergence of the early childhood studio as an event-full place. In C. M. Schulte & C. M. Thompson (Eds.), Communities of Practice: Art, Play, and Aesthetics in Early Childhood (pp. 5–21). Springer International Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70644-3_2
Mycock, K. (2019). Playing with mud- becoming stuck, becoming free? … The negotiation of gendered/class identities when learning outdoors. Children’s Geographies, 17(4), 454–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1546379 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1546379
Rodari, G. (1996). The grammar of fantasy: an introduction to the art of inventing stories. Teachers & Writers Collaborative.
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