Remember International Mud Day?

Remember how much fun we had celebrating International Mud Day at Discovery Child Centre?

Here's a blog post by LetTheChildrenPlay about letting kids have fun with mud.

1. Playing with Mud can make you happier - Scientists have discovered something that children have always known - playing in the mud can lift your mood. Recent studies have revealed that dirt contains microsopic bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae which increases the levels of seratonin in our brains, helping to relax, soothe and calm.
2. Playing with Mud can make you healthier - Step away from the antibacterial hand wipes. Research has shown that playing in the dirt - including very wet dirt - is good for a child's immune system.
3. Playing with Mud can make you smarter - Throw away the flash cards and sent your child outside to play instead. Studies have found that playing in the dirt can make you smarter. The same release of serotonin that occurs when playing in M. vaccae dirt has also been shown to improve cognitive function.
4. Playing with Mud helps children learn and develop - Sensory, hands-on play feeds children's brains. Listing all the ways playing with mud - a delightfully sensory experience - can help children to learn and develop would be a whole post in itself. So I'm going to send you here for a thorough look at the value of sensory play.
5. Playing with Mud connects you to nature - If you never know something, it’s hard to care about it. Many kids these days never know the outdoors beyond the school playground or their own backyards, if they even have one. Getting kids outside to play (as a place to act out make believe worlds and explore) creates happy memories with the one most primal element in our world: nature.

Read the full article and see points number 6-10

Ten Reasons We Should Let Children Play in Mud..

And here, re-posted are our pictures from International Mud day!






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