101 things to do outside with children #10: get dirty!

We've been enjoying a great deal of mud around here. The spring rains have come as promised, and right on schedule. The grass is up, the trees are leafing out, and there is mud-glorious mud-everywhere to be found. (Including, I admit, on every surface inside my home). Mud is a wonderful play medium! It feels great, can be mixed to any texture, and it appeals to many senses: touch, sight, smell, hearing, and even, if you're not careful, taste. We have a mud hole in our back yard specifically for rainy days. The neighborhood children flock to our yard, and everyone uses toy trucks, pieces of scrap wood, branches and leaves to create bridges, ferry boats, and structures along the edges of the mud puddles. Or they dig trenches and rivers of muddy water flow. Or they dig and dig, then stick their toes in deep, feeling them disappear into the squishy ooze.