Playing Dirt

(Open ended play)

Ah, dirt. When I think of children playing in the dirt, I flash back to my own childhood and I was just a toddler myself. My mum hated what it means for the time she had to spend doing laundry, but I couldn’t resist touching it, jumping in it, feeling it.

We now live in a city center. Despite access to the biggest city park in the country, I felt that we rob her chance of enjoying nature to the fullest as I grew up with.

We might post lots of indoor activities, but we spent most of our daily hours outside. The beauty of playing outside is the lack of structure and the infinite list of possibilities.

Children are children though. They seek out all kinds of textures as a way of learning. Playing with dirt is fun, and the texture feels good. No matter whether it is in the woods or when it was only a teeny patch of dirt around a tree planted between sidewalk pavers. Dirt is dirt.

Currently, at 2 years 7 months old of age, Y loves to draw on dirt. She would either use a stick or her finger right away to draw doodles on dirt. Her most favorite things with dirt remain unchanged these past months though: grab, pour and count.

#dirt #toddler #play