Embracing Messy Toys and Projects

When Adam was a toddler five or so years ago, I was totally against messy toys and projects. We would get gifts like finger paints, and I would set them aside and not use them. In fact the finger paints went right into the Toys for Tots donation bin that year. We sent him to preschool so he can experience all those creative messy outlets there, no need to do those activities at home!

But over the years, I've broken down and started to embrace messy activities. It could be that we amassed so many gifts that fall in this category that the kids begged to use (mostly from Doug's family). Or maybe I've just chilled out. Here are some of the messy activities that we've partaken in:

Painted flower pots, Adam's on the left and Dova's on the right.


Paper mache volcano that they painted as well. You see that smock that Dova is wearing? We got that with Adam's finger paints. He never got to wear this smock because I wouldn't let him get that messy. Don't forget to check out the pictures and video of the volcano erupting.



Dig-a-Dino (obviously a different box here). The dinosaur bones were encased in this totally messy red clay which you dug out using plastic tools. We tried to do this outside, but we both became covered in red dust. After many hours, we only got less than half the bones out. Finally I took the hammer to it in one last attempt to extract the remaining bones. It shattered very cleanly, and all the bones came out easily without a mess! Why didn't I think of that in the first place?



Triops. It was a bit creepy growing these prehistoric creatures on our counter, but the kids were completely fascinated by them. They only lasted a few weeks and thankfully we have much more normal goldfish as pets now.