Your mum pretending to eat a cake. Only pretending, because the cake is actually just a handful of clay. “Mhhh!” she makes sounds like if she has never eaten anything so good. Once you look away, she would empty her hand and clean her palm from the clay. “Make me another one!”
Do you remember?
There are only a few magical words that sparks the enthusiasm of forest education as much as the “mud kitchen”. Have you tried to google it? Out there, there is an entire World of the Mud Kitchen! It seems to but such a crucial part of the forest learning and children’s development.
Mud kitchen is a little kitchen, that is used to prepare imaginal food by the children, made out of natural material. Mud is the most used one, but we also like to add some real vegetables or fruits, leaves, flowers, stones, wooden, etc.
Not only children mimic what they see at home, preparing food, but they also train their imagination, motor, and develop a positive relationship with nature. Plus, if there are at least two kids, they often interact with each other around the “cooking” and “eating” naturally, learning spontaneously how to behave and communicate with a friend.
Most of the amazement happens in the heads of the kids; we, adults, cannot see what they are making. Each ingredients enter their imaginary world and may become something completely new. Mud kitchen develops creativity in a great manner.
Let your kids play with the mud more, without fear of getting dirty. They may offer you another cake ;)