Summer Messy Play Activities for Preschoolers

Fun In The Sun - 6 Tips For Creating A Mud Kitchen For Your Kids

Kids love mud! And as dirty as they may get, it’s time to advocate messy play so they can learn new skills the fun way. The fastest and easiest way to encourage your kids to get outdoors is to build them a mud kitchen.They'll be tripping over each other to get outside

Building your own mud kitchen is a creative, cost-effective way of enabling messy play for your kids while saving money on an expensive play kitchen. 

You can build your mud kitchen in your own way, and in the end, your kids will have the perfect environment in which to get their hands dirty anytime.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash

Six tips to create your own mud kitchen

1. Use What You’ve Got

Poke around your garage and see what you can recycle to save money on your mud kitchen. You can use wood, recycled pallets, and old timber for the construction. Old cookware and bakeware, utensils, and decorations can also be used to finish out the kitchen,

Remember, the idea is to ignite your child’s imagination, so your DIY mud kitchen doesn’t need to resemble a brand-new toy kitchen set. 

2. Stove Tops Add to The Fun

While it’s great to leave some things up to the imagination, it’s a good idea to make your play kitchen resemble a real kitchen by creating a stove top. You can paint the burners on a piece of timber or wood, and you can even add broken or thrifted appliances to your outdoor kitchen to enhance its appearance. You can also use good, old cardboard to create a play stove.

3. Bake Mud Cakes

The fun part of having a mud kitchen is that your kids get to play with mud and get as dirty as they want. All you need to make mud cakes is some sand or soil and water. You can use old cookware and bake ware to contain them and shape them like cakes and cupcakes.

Parents can get involved by showing kids how to create funky-shaped cookies with cookie cutters and molds or add colored pasta to the mud for added texture. This kind of sensory play is an important part of childhood development, but above all, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Pistachio Pudding Play Dough

4. Set the Table

A mud kitchen is a fun way to teach your child table manners. Guide your preschoolers through setting a table and laying out the dishes. Show them the way to arrange cutlery and allow your children to bring some garden leaves to create napkins for a rustic table setting.

5. Add a Sink

Since you’ve introduced messy play to your preschoolers with colored pasta and mud cakes, it’s a good idea to take care of the cleanup. The most logical way to do this is to add a sink to your mud kitchen! To create your sink, use a silver or grey bucket and fill it with water or a big flower put with the bottom plugged works nicely too.

Add a hose in the bucket so that there’s an accessible faucet. This is a great way to teach children how to clean up after themselves. Add some dish washing liquid and a sponge so you can wash all the cookware the kids used before bringing it back into the house!

How to Make your own Dish Washing Soap

6. Dress For The Occasion

Every chef needs a chef’s hat and apron, so make sure to get these for your child. They will love it! Plus, the apron will offer some protection from mud splatter while playing. Rubber boots are a good idea too. Preschool age kids and toddlers love to wear galoshes!

How to Make your own Chef Hat

 

Have fun with your kiddos and their mud kitchen. You may want to wear some rubber boots yourself! Encourage your children to enjoy free and imaginative play, and you can bet they’ll learn tons of kitchen tricks in the process. Pretend play is the best way to learn!

Recommended Reading:

Pretend Play and Play Date Ideas from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Fun Books about Galoshes from Amazon

How did Coronavirus affect the Housing Market?

 Has the 2020 Pandemic Changed your Living Situation?

When you work from home as a social media marketing consultant for small business and an online social media influencer, AND homeschool your kids, you can literally work from anywhere.  A few years ago, we took advantage of  that and bought a cottage in the middle of nowhere on a little lake. If I knew then, what I know now, I would've held out for more money when I sold it in 2020. Even so, for owning it just over two years, I made a little money on the deal. So, what's up with the housing situation anyway?

                                    This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Lake house, fixer upper, mid fix stage.

In 2019 the kids decided they wanted to attend public school to pursue building trades and band. As a anxious homeschooling mom, I wanted to feel comfortable with this choice, so we moved back to my hometown and we rented. Lucky for me, it wasn't real renting. My brother had purchased a rental and we moved in while I looked for a more permanent place to call home. Since everyone was out of the house, I decided to go back to working in a brick and mortar environment too and I took a job for Habitat for Humanity.

Then, I looked and I looked, and I looked. Rentals were few and far between and most of them were either outside of my price range or beneath my standards. Let me tell you, I had pretty low expectations, but I wanted my kids to feel safe. I tried to purchase my own home, but every time a place went on the market it sold before I even got a chance to look at it. What was left were the homes that no one wanted. The homes that couldn't get  loans due to major issues or the homes that were priced well over their appraised value. Though, I considered making the leap and purchasing one of these houses, I held out for a home that wasn't a fixer upper.  

However, the home we bought, would've sold for considerably less in 2019, before the pandemic. In fact, the flipper had purchased the house at a 2017 auction for only $25,000. After looking at several houses that were priced outside of my comfort zone and not really what I wanted, I jumped on the opportunity to buy my home at $131,900. Sure, in most communities, that's a great price, but in my hometown the median home price is $85,000 and the houses in the neighborhood were going for considerably less. I needed to love this house for the purchase to make any sense. It was a risky move, will it retain it's value?

However,  despite the housing market situation, I decided to take a risk and make an offer below asking price. The homeowner countered, and I accepted. It was oddly easy, as most houses were selling over the asking price and this house had everything I wanted. Just before I closed, I found out that the house had been the place of a brutal murder. Probably should've countered the counter offer. I was the only one bidding. I'm not mad. I'm thankful to finally have an affordable, safe place to call home.

After the pandemic, the prices of homes in rural areas like New Castle, Indiana have skyrocketed. For those who are looking for 3+ bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, there's a housing shortage. Since Covid hit, more people are realizing they too can work from home. And they can live anywhere. So, they're abandoning high cost urban areas and retreating to rural communities where the cost of living is easier on the wallet and life is simpler. This means, rural areas can raise home prices and because rentals are in high demand with millennials, they can also raise the rent, pricing out low-income families. In turn, many affluent urban areas are actually seeing a decrease in rent as people flock to small towns. You can learn more about that in this article on how 2020 changed the housing market.

After reviewing the article, I took special note of what this is doing to low income families. Working at Habitat for Humanity, it is my job to help low income families find affordable housing and help remove some of the barriers to home ownership. With increasing cost of building materials and virus constraints, many area Habitat affiliates have had to put building new homes on the back burner. Families have had to wait for over two years for their homes to be completed, and Habitat affiliates are losing money and need to raise more funds just to complete the houses. 

The chart below lists several counties neighboring the one where I live. If you aren't from around here, the data may not tell the whole story. However, Hamilton and Hendricks counties have some of Indiana's most affluent neighborhoods. Marion county is the home to Indianapolis, which has seen a slight increase, but compared to cities like Chicago and New York, Indianapolis is an escape to a more rural life. It appears the Coronavirus has changed the housing market. More and more people are realizing they can work from home, and that means that home can be anywhere they want it to be. There truly is no place like home, so why live in a house in a place that you don't love?

Affordable rentals in New Castle, Indiana.

We want to hear your thoughts! Have you moved or considered purchasing a new home in the pandemic? Tell us about it in the comments.

2/1/2021

Delaware County

Indiana

$600

3.30%

$45,065

114,135

Small metro

2/1/2021

Hancock County

Indiana

$790

9.00%

$69,392

78,168

Large fringe metro

2/1/2021

Hamilton County

Indiana

$1,116

-0.90%

$105,062

338,011

Large fringe metro

2/1/2021 Marion County Indiana $996 21.70% $50,458 964,582 Large central metro

2/1/2021

Madison County

Indiana

$792

20.20%

$55,142

129,569

Large fringe metro

This chart from Zumper tells the story with data.

Recommended Reading:

Ultimate Home Repair Guide

How to Create a Safe Family Home

How to Fix Common Home Repair Issues 

Inspiring Kids to be More Creative can Boost Self Esteem

 Different Ways to Inspire Creativity in Your Child 

As a parent, it's often challenging to see your child struggling, especially with their creative endeavors. It's essential to inspire children to explore their passions and interests. For young girls, especially, it can be difficult not to get pulled along by peers and lose sight of personal interests and passions. One way to help all kids find their voice and unique passion is to inspire their creative flow with lots of creative activities. Encourage your boys and girls to try something outside of their comfort zone!

This post contains Amazon and other affiliate links for your convenience.

School plays are a creative outlet that builds self-confidence
 and life long friendships.

If you follow along on this blog, you know that kids being creative is our lifeblood. Kids Creative Chaos is not only our name, but our mantra. Creativity is often a chaotic event, but it needs to take place! Never choose a clean house over letting a child explore their creativity. Squelching creativity can have unwanted outcomes. Empower your kids to be themselves, explore their creativity, and improve their self-esteem in the process! And never, never, fall into the old stereotypes of labeling activities for boys or for girls. Without even knowing it, you can be killing a child's self-worth and dreams. As we always say, let them try, try try!

Inspiring creativity is a challenging tasks for most parents. Kids often choose not to do something simply because their parents have suggested it. Other times, they may feel insecure about trying something new. Try to encourage different creative pursuits as an outlet for self-esteem, fellowship, and mental health. Here are a few simple ways on how to cultivate your child’s creativity. 

Mayhem in a school band production.

Introduce kids to different types of crafts

Introducing your child to different ways to be creative allows their mind to develop away from the rigid confines of the creativity taught in many schools. It shows children the art of critical thinking and developing passions beyond the ordinary. Ask your child what interests them, but also give them options and ideas to inspire their creative and critical thinking.

If you wonder what this might look like, consider introducing your kids to different expressions of art that inspire creativity. For example, listen to music with them, discuss musical instruments and let them try one. Many cities have musical petting zoos or other opportunities to test an instrument.

Activities for Creative Expression

Jake in an adaptation of Brother's Grimm.

You can also show your kids different forms of creative expression with painting and other arts and crafts. Allow them to play and explore. The earlier kids start experimenting with creativity, the better chance it will have an affect on their emotional stability and self-esteem. So, be sure to take your kids to museums, the theater, and to music concerts to inspire their senses and allow them to engage in all sorts of artistic pursuits. If you want to learn more about that, here's an article from Berkeley on why the arts matter.

On a side note, always remember to read with your children and encourage critical discussion on the book and its themes. A child with a curious mind will find it easier to access their personal creativity. 

Surrealist Art Activity for Elementary Children

Give Kids creative gifts

Giving a child and exciting gift that isn't clothes or a video game, might inspire them to think creatively or get actively moving and making art. If you're struggling for ideas for your daughter, there are many gifts for girls to choose from that don't need to sit within the confines of gendered stereotypes. For example, you could buy her a zine-making kit. Firstly, making things helps kids to be more creative, but secondly, creating their own magazine can encourage kids to use their voice for good. Zines are a great way for children of all ages and genders to write and be creative. Click here for gift ideas that are targeting boys but can work for either gender. My daughter always hated to be excluded from toy cars, trains, and Transformers and my son loves to use hot pink as an accent color for sunglasses, hats, or other accessories. He gets a kick out of people giving him a hard time. Self-confidence at work!

Books about the Arts for Kids

Allow kids to explore 

Finally, one of the most important ways to inspire creativity within your child is to allow them to explore on their own. For a child, exploring comes in many shapes and forms, from creative play to fashion. If you want your child to develop a unique identity and a sense of themselves, they have to learn what they like and don't like.

See how we encouraged our daughter to dress however she pleased.

Kids have to try out activities and get things wrong. Making mistakes is an excellent way for a child to learn, and this can also be applied to their creative endeavors. So, give your kids some paint or a dress-up box and encourage them to explore. Then, stay engaged in their exploration and find out more about what they are doing and why, but never force it- being an over zealous parent can backfire. Play it cool, and watch your kids have fun with the skills you helped to create.

Recommended:

Rhythm Discovery Center Indianapolis, Indiana

Get Musical Instruments on Amazon

Book Tips for Kids

Flower Gifts for Mom on Mother’s Day

Mother's Day Gift Guide, Flower Edition

When is Mother’s Day? This year, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9. Looking for something special besides

flowers for Mom? This gift guide will help you find the perfect present. Whether you get gorgeous gold earrings

or a beautiful spring blouse, you can still give her flowers! Save I love you and gift your mom with these unique,

floral gift ideas for Mother’s Day.  (This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.)

Giving flowers on Mother’s Day is a tradition. But cut flowers fade and are a waste of money. If a bouquet of roses

on Mother's Day is a family tradition, you can still give your mom flowers this mother’s day! Gift your mom flowers

with these adorable, beautiful gold earrings with a cascade of flowers on the earring backing.

Gold jewelry gift ideas

Love this daisy print shirt, a variety of floral shirts are available on Amazon. If you've been procrastinating, Amazon is a great place to order online. With Prime, many gifts will arrive the next day. Some cities even have 2 hour delivery services. If this particular pattern doesn't match your Mom's style, you can see the variety of floral blouse patterns by clicking here.

For another flower gift that keeps on giving, give Mom this Cut Flower Garden book. If she loves to garden or has just been thinking of starting a flower garden, this book serves as a guide to

achieve the best seasonal blooms year round.

If you always give your mom roses for Mother’s Day, kick it up a notch with a gold tipped rose fromIHateStevenSinger.com They come in a variety of colors including: red, lavender, pink, and white.

Another flower gift option, is Kenzo flower perfume spray. The scent is a mix of orange flowers and sweet spice that apparently smells like sweet dessert. The bottle is pretty cool too. It makes an elegant gift.

For flowers that will last, this flower box garden kit is perfect for the crafty mom in your life. She can grow her
own flowers year after year. If you have children, they can decorate the flower box together. Whatever

you choose, be sure to tailor it to your mom's personality and interests. The more thoughtful the gift the

more meaningful it will be to your mother.

So, go out and make this the best mother's day ever. For more gift ideas for Mother's Day, check out

our recommended reading list.

Recommended Reading:

Mother's Day Sayings for Homemade Cards

Mama Ain't Happy Quote

How to Help Protect Your Teen From Mental Health Disorders

Keeping Teens Safe

From their very first days, your mission as a parent has been to keep your children safe from harm. This involves taking proactive steps to ensure their safety and make sure they grow to understand the potential for negative consequences to their actions. It's so hard to know how to help protect your teen from mental health disorders. Protecting your children from harm is a lifelong job.

Like many parents, you likely sought to accomplish this goal by teaching them good eating habits and how totake care of themselves physically. However, the mental challenges that children face, particularly when they

transition into their teenage years, might not have been on your radar quite as much.

It can be difficult for parents to understand the mental struggles that teenagers face in this day and age. Today, teens face a great deal of pressure to live up to a certain archetype and work hard to set themselves up for future success. That being said, from a mental and physical standpoint, teenagers are still developing, leaving them to face such pressures before they even really know who they are or what they want to do with their lives.

As a parent, the best thing that you can do for your teen is take a proactive stance on mental health. With mental health conditions on the rise in young people, and more and more teenagers turning to self-harm and even suicide, it is important for parents to step in and help teens to navigate the burden of this stage of their lives. If you're the parent of a teen, here are a few ways you can seek to protect your teens from developing a mental health condition.

Educate Yourself

First and foremost, the best thing you can do to help your teen avoid developing a mental health condition is

to educate yourself. Learning about the prevalent mental health conditions in teenagers and how to detect

early signs that an issue might be at play can go a long way to stopping the progression of a mental health

condition before things get out of hand.

It's also a good idea to learn about the treatment options available to teens who struggle with mental health disorders. Resources on specific conditions like anorexia and bulimia can be found at edentreatment.com Acquiring information from your family care physician can help you to learn more about the internal struggles that your teen might be facing.

Create a Positive Environment

With busy work and school weekdays, it can be difficult to make time for meaningful conversationsand time together as a family. However, one of the things parents can do to help teens avoid mental health

issues is to work to create a positive and safe environment. Checking in with your teen and leaving the door open for communication is key. Promote a positive sense of self and provide your teen with positive affirmation which can help combat outside pressures to change or act in a certain way that may not align with their personal ethics and morals. Positivity and a happy home life go a long way in helping children cope during the teen years.

Recommended Reading:

How to Protect Teens from Cyberbullying

Self Care is Key to a Healthy Family Life

Teen Mental Health Self Help Books  (Affiliate Link)