Benefits of Letting your kids get Messy   

Who knew getting messy not only can be lots of fun for your kids, but also beneficial! You may sometimes as a parent want to grab the wipes and paper towels when you know a mess is coming, but first check this out before you call for the cleaning arsenal.

Free play and allowing your kids to explore their messy sides, aides in many areas of natural development. Here are some of the ways that it can show to be beneficial:

Spatial/body awareness: Exploring your environment in a variety of ways such as rolling, running, going up-side down, sliding on your tummy, etc. helps with learning where your body is in comparison to your environment. Messy play and more tactile input helps in increasing this awareness during these different positions. Being allowed to fall, roll around and rough-house increases balance, coordination and overall safety, due to knowing your body and how it moves.

Creativity and imagination: Allowing your children to explore the messes they make and interpret them the way they want builds upon their imaginations and encourages creativity.

Health: Letting my child make a mess keeps them healthy? Think of it this way, the child that is outside making mud pies and sliding down the slide into the puddles is getting a lot more movement than the child in front of the tv or the computer. Not that those things are bad, but good old-fashioned play shouldn't be a lost art.

Increases Self-Regulation: Allowing kids to run, jump in puddles, dig in the sand, etc. is going to increase their overall regulation during the day. The more movement during the day, the better they sleep, eat and learn. Not restricting the play and allowing them to get dirty or messy, as long as it's safe of course, encourages them to continue seeking out the movement that they need.

Problem solving skills and motor planning: If we clean up our children immediately, every time they get dirty or keep them from messy situations all together, we are not letting them build upon their problem solving skills. Letting them explore in messy play builds upon problem solving and overall motor planning. How messy can I get? What happens when I put it in my hair? Can I wipe it off with my hand? Does my friend like it when I touch them with messy hands? They begin to figure out things on their own and form their own answers to their questions. It can also aide in learning appropriate social cues as well over time.

We all remember how much fun it was to get messy as a kid and why wouldn't we want our children to experience the same thing? So remember to put aside those remotes and keyboards every now and then and go get messy!