I am a big fan of mud, dirt and playing outdoors.  Among my favorite memories from childhood are those where I would spend hours playing outside - imagining, pretending and creating/co-creating with mud, dirt, sticks, leaves, and whatever bits of nature my siblings and our friends could find.  (One memory that is often talked about when my siblings and I get together is how one of my brothers with an artistic bent would spend hours using mud, sticks and leaves to make palm tree villages and then the rest of us would come along with our Star Wars ships and dirt clods and "bomb" the villages...it doesn't sound very nice now, but it certainly typifies the sometimes aggressive aspect of the imaginative play of childhood.)  As an adult, I've read about research and observations which, unsurprising to me, indicate how beneficial playing outside and playing in the mud and dirt are for children, and even for adults.  The reported benefits for those who regularly play outside, play in nature and/or play with dirt are numerous:  better mental health, lower incidence of depression, decreased stress levels, significant reduction in ADHD symptoms, increased immunity, lower incidence of allergies and asthma, better digestive health, increased cognitive function, improved motor skill development, increased creativity, and more.  I'm also a fan of encouraging ample unstructured play time.  This is free play - not guided by adults, but created by the kids themselves.  There are several studies indicating how important unstructured play is for social, emotional and cognitive development, all of which again, I don't find to be a big surprise.    (At the end of this post, I have provided a "further reading" list with links to other sites that provide more information, though one can find quite a few resources by typing something like "benefits of playing in dirt," "benefits of outdoor play" or "benefits of unstructured play" into an online search engine.)

A few years ago I first saw an article about constructing an outdoor mud kitchen for kids, and I thought it was a great way to foster unstructured outdoor play in the dirt - all those things which the aforementioned studies and my intuition favor.  Plus, it just sounded fun!  I've wanted to build a mud kitchen for my children ever since, and my husband and I finally did so this summer.  As a result of installing a brick patio last summer, we had a big pile of dirt sitting in our back yard, and we spent several months contemplating what to do with it.  The kids had such a great time playing on the dirt pile - they even used it as a mini sledding hill during the winter - that we decided to keep the pile of dirt; it was inexpensive play with which the kids could get a lot of playtime mileage.  I figured this was a great time to put a mud kitchen in next to the dirt pile.  I started with an online search to view images of other mud kitchens as an inspiration point, then looked around at what we had on hand, went to a Habitat ReStore to see what items we could get for minimal cost, and went from there.  We decided to use our past-its-prime diaper changing table (itself a previous consignment sale find) and a homemade wooden stereo stand, both of which were being stored in our basement.  I found some shutters and a small sink at the ReStore.  Though I forgot to measure the width of of the stereo stand before I went to the ReStore, by some stroke of luck the width of the shutters which I purchased were a perfect fit.  The shutters seemed like such a versatile item, that I figured even if they didn't fit the stand, I'd find another use for them in a future project. The changing table became a sink stand/counter, using an old piece of laminate countertop we had on hand, and the stereo stand became a refrigerator/oven.  My in-laws were replacing their deck steps and gave us the old wood, which was still in fairly good condition; my husband used it to build a table for the mud kitchen.  The entire project became a fun creative exercise - we enjoyed taking what items we had available, coming up with our own mud kitchen design and figuring out how to make it work. The kids picked out the paint colors for the kitchen, although I managed to convince them to use a darker shade of their preferred color on at least part of the kitchen to help make the inevitable dirt stand out a little bit less.  My last minute inspiration was to create a menu board by taking some of the scrap plywood left from cutting out backings for the sink stand and refrigerator/oven, spray painting the wood with some chalkboard paint we already had, and attaching a couple old, dated drawer pulls from a previous dresser refinishing project.  Once the pulls were spray painted, they had a much improved look.  In all honesty, I still haven't gotten around to hanging the menu board outside, so I don't really know how well it will stand up to the weather...but I still like the idea of it. The last step was to stock the kitchen with used pots and pans and utensils, many of which we purchased very inexpensively at a Salvation Army thrift store.  We use a plastic lidded tub for storing all of the kitchen "supplies" outside with the kitchen.

One nice thing about this project was that we weren't concerned about the kitchen looking perfect and professional.  After all, this is a mud kitchen - it is meant to be played with outside, it is meant to get very dirty and be abused by the weather and by kids.  So flaws are not a problem.  We are far from being experts, and we have some doubts on how well all of this will hold up to the elements, but it should be fun while it lasts.  The laminate countertop has particle board underneath, and we were doubtful of how weather-hardy it would be, despite painting the exposed particle board with exterior paint.  Our doubts have been shown to have merit, as the countertop is already warped; however, we can easily just unscrew it and replace it with a different material when we're ready.  My husband and I are very happy with how the mud kitchen turned out, but more importantly, the kids really like it and actually play with it.  It's not always used as a kitchen, but more often as an outdoor lab or general play area where the kids can pretend they are on a ship, pour rainwater down the sink drain or bring the worms, toads and other critters they capture for inspection.  The kids have befriended the toads in the back yard, and Hopper 1 has a favorite toad that he has named Boderi.  I am happy that the kids are spending so much time outside and have a new play area that fosters more exploring and imagining.  (And I have to admit that I have an additional, more selfish reason that I like the kids to play outside regularly and for a good amount of time:  it gives me a break.)  Encouraging outdoor play certainly means more dirt being trudged all over the patio and then dragged into the house.  Although the kids have well-worn jeans and shirts designated as their "dirt" clothes, and I keep a wire basket by the back door for the "dirt" clothes and galoshes to go into as soon as the kids come inside, there is still plenty of opportunity for sweeping the floor multiple times each day (this doesn't mean it always is swept that often, but the opportunity is there).  The mess might be a deal breaker for some people, but we don't live in a meticulously kept house to begin with, and for me the benefits of my kids being outside playing in the dirt far outweigh the costs.  I hope that when my kids are grown they have as many good memories of playing outside in childhood as I have.

For further reading:
Nature Explore
Benefits for Children of Play in Nature by White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group
Let Your Kids Get Dirty by The Art of Simple
The Mud Center: Recapturing Childhood by Community Playthings
Why Playing in the Mud is More Than Just Fun by Nature Play QLD
The Dirt on Dirt: How Getting Dirty Makes for Healthy Kids by The Stay at Home Educator
Scientists Say Child's Play Helps Build a Better Brain by NPR
Why Free Play is the Best Summer School by The Atlantic
The Value of Unstructured Play Time for Kids by Pacific Standard

My oldest son, Hopper 1, enjoys watching cooking shows on PBS (we don't have cable, so PBS is the only station on which he has seen any cooking shows).  A couple of his favorite shows are Lidia's Kitchen and Martha Stewart's Cooking School.  Not too long ago, he saw Martha make Lemon Pudding Cakes.  He apparently thought they looked pretty tasty because he decided that we definitely needed to try making them at home, and he has asked to make them a few times since.  Unfortunately, I kept putting him off.  I have a tendency to get into a "gotta get things done" mode and tell him that we don't have time now because I have to do "x, y, z," but that we can put it on our list of fun things to do another time...and then I forget to go back and do said fun thing because I've moved on to trying to check another thing off of my mundane "to do" list.  Although there legitimately are tasks that have to get done sooner rather than later, if I am too frequently hanging out in the "gotta get things done" mode, I usually get a reality check that comes in the form of Hopper 1's relentless misbehavior.  I got that reality check this past week.  My husband and I (primarily me, since I am home with the kids) were hitting a wall with the natural consequences and various discipline techniques directed at addressing Hopper 1's defiance, whining, tattling, antagonizing his brother and overall inappropriate behaviors.  We removed toys that weren't being played with nicely, we had the boys play separately due to continued fighting, we took away privileges, we tried providing more activity to get any energy out, we gave time outs, etc. - but nothing seemed to be having much impact on Hopper 1's behavior.  I was exasperated.  In that exasperation, it can be tempting for me to focus on enforcing consequences for misbehavior because it is the easy default.  But when I'm willing to be humble, I can usually acknowledge that I may have some role in the way this dance is going.  I've learned, particularly with Hopper 1, that sometimes (maybe often), the key to getting a behavior turnaround is more time in with us/adding more, not more time out/taking away more (I have learned this, but I still forget it very often).  I don't know whether it is a first child trait or personality trait, but Hopper 1 thrives best when he has lots of 1-on-1 time with my husband and me.  With 3 kids, we simply cannot give him all the attention he desires - or at the time that he wants it - nor do I want him to come to expect to get all the attention he desires.  But there is a balance to giving him the attention he needs, and we got a little off balance recently.  So, my husband and I made plans for Hopper 1 to have a "1-on-1" day with my husband, and I forced myself to slow down and, while the other 2 kids were napping, finally helped Hopper 1 make those Lemon Pudding Cakes he's been wanting to try.  This was his activity, so it meant really letting him do the work, have fun and learn.  Consequently, it took quite a while longer to make than when I bake, which can be a struggle for me with my type A tendencies. But, as usual, it was worth it.  I loved seeing how capable Hopper 1 is becoming and watching him learn math and science concepts while cooking.  When I'm patient and present with him, I get to see his confidence grow as he tries new things, develops and masters skills, and sees the results of his efforts.  And... we've had better behavior.  My "to do" list remains mostly untouched - the laundry is still all over the living room, waiting to be folded; the yard is not mulched; emails are unanswered; toothpaste is still streaked down the side of the bathroom sink; and the desk in the kitchen is still hidden under mounds of clutter - but I think we're all a little more sane and happy, regardless.  And the Lemon Pudding Cakes really are pretty darn tasty.


My lesson(s):  Misbehavior in my kids can sometimes be missing-me-behavior.  The cost of getting things checked off of my "to do" list is sometimes just not worth it.