Just add water…

When doing messy play at home try not to chuck everything in at once..
doing this may cut the play short due to bordem or your child may become over whelmed.
Start with the basics & add different elements to keep your little one interested.

When they are interested in their play they will learn much more!

Below are some idea's for simple but effective messy play to do with your little one's at home. It doesn't require extravagant or expensive materials and to change the textures just add water!   

FLOUR + WATER

Give your little one a bowl of flour, let them play with this for a few minutes: Feeling the soft texture, making marks in the flour and sprinkle it with their fingers. 
If you've added 2 cups of flour, give them 1/2 a cup of water to add to their bowl. Let them get messy squeezing it through their fingers or mix it with a spoon and it will eventually it will form a playdough texture. 

Adding different elements such as basil, lemon zest, mint, etc will allow them to explore different senses, they can add it to their play dough making it nice and smelly!! For the last stage add rolling pins and different shape cutters. 

SMASH + WATER

Another great material for children to play with is SMASH.. this is a powder form of potato that you can buy from any supermarket. The initial texture is a bit like sawdust… put it out onto a tray and you can turn it into whatever you like.
Above we have turned ours into a train track. 
Add water to the smash turns it into a texture slightly like wet sand, your little one's can fill pots to make mash potato castles. 

Using edible materials in messy play at home reduces the stress.. depending on their age the "mess" will almost definitely go into their mouth at some point; this way it's okay!
​ Just remember not to use small round food such as grapes, blueberries, peas, etc to reduce a possibility of chocking hazard.