Messy play

What age of children do you involve on messy play and what materials do you use for yours? What do the kids enjoy doing? Any recommendations/advice welcome :-)

For children who put things in their mouths I would go with food based messy play! ... rice crispies, jelly, cooked pasta, flour, ice etc.

I provide messy play for LOs as soon as they are able to sit or get themselves into it! I use a tuff tray on the floor!

Once children stop putting things in their mouths then there is no limit to messy play! Everything and anything pretty much.

I don't actually like using food for messy play ( or anything other than cooking/eating activities ) so I do only use food stuffs for mouthing babies.

Shaving foam is definitely my favourite!

I put squirts of foam on the tuff spot, then splodges of paint. The children have spoons etc to mix it with, or just use their hands. sometimes I'll add glitter.

I also use shaving foam in empty ice cream containers. Each child has their own with a squirt of foam. It's good for mark making as they can use their finger to draw shapes.

I rarely use cooked food for messy play. I will use dry pasta, rice, dried peas etc as they can be re-used. I find they're a very good introduction for children who don't like getting messy - it's clean messy play! Once they get used to touching and playing with something different you can move onto the real messy stuff :thumbsup:

As soon as they can sit up in their high chair. My high chairs have a table with a lip all around the edge and so I would just fill it with water and let them splash away to their heart content. If I did it outdoors I would add a splash off food colouring. Cornflour and water is another good one for very young babies (or older children). My DD used to love messy play and then at about age 4 suddenly went off it and hated getting the slightest bit dirty. Now she loves it again. So, do be prepared for some children not liking it. I have tried almost every messy play activity under the sun with my daughter. Now I am a bit less adventurous, simply because I don't like a huge clear up.

It also depends what you want them to get out of it. Some materials are great for pouring and scooping (rice, lentils, pasta, gravel etc) whilst others are god for squelching (clean mud, shaving foam, jelly etc.), others are good for mark making, creating, small world etc.

In my area they have started doing Splat sessions for babies and toddlers. It's fab, very messy and lots of fun with the added bonus that there's loads of different options in one place and I don't have to clean it up after! They have:- foam, jelly, cornflour, paint, milk, water, alphabeti spaghetti, yoghurt etc. All none toxic, the little ones love it, I've seen babies there about 7 months - they get very messy lol!

We love shaving foam, gloop n finger paints. One I had didn't like messy hands so we put paint inside a zip loc plastic wallet n let them squish it and make patterns

Yes, I too have used zip loc bags as a way of gentle introduction to messy play. Another well enjoyed 'ingredient' for a young child was custard poured onto their highchair tray.