Making a Mud Brick House

Marvellous Mud, it really is an endless resource with endless ways to play. Mud was used back in the day to make mud bricks to build houses with, there are very few still standing but I think its a neat and easy idea for outdoor play, we might do this again when Dimples is older and make a large scale mud brick building. Now that would be an awesome experience.

I have wanted to make mud bricks with Dimples for a long time but was unsure how to approach it & with the birth of Miss Cherub, I've been a bit behind with planning projects for Dimples. Ever since we made the Marvellous Outdoor Mud kitchen I have been planning to do this with Dimples as a different experience to teach him about the formation of materials and how the elements effect materials, like mud.

He just adores construction activities and has lately been questioning how things work. How was that built? How does that spin? He has been fascinated with the mechanics of things and the structure.  So this was a different outdoor play experience still utilising messy sensory play and the fun of playing with dirt but a great lesson in construction and something he is really interested in at the moment.

First we needed to make our mud brick moulds; I collected the bases of milk bottles for a few weeks as they are square and perfect shape and always the same size.
Next we needed to make our Mud "Cement"; This was an interesting lesson on materials and how certain materials are made. As I said before, Dimples has been asking me how things are made like for instance  what is cement, how are houses built, where do drains go? everything really.  He always comments on bricks and relates it to the big bad wolf. So using this story we discussed how bricks are made to be strong.

Now the learning unfolds!
We had a great talk about how mud bricks are made. Too wet and they are sloppy and wont hold together, too dry and they will crumble apart. How can we make them stronger? Dimples came up with the idea to add sand, as I had told him sand was in cement. Great! Then we mixed together our dirt and water. I went on to tell him how mud bricks need to be held together by grass or hay so that they are nice and strong right through the middle once they are dry.  We added some dry grass and mulched it up so they would hold, a little more sand, a little more grass until it was nice and gluggy.

Further, we talked about how they formed into bricks and the drying process, how they would become strong enough to keep out the big bad wolf and how they kept their shape as bricks through completely drying out and cooked in the sun.



Then, Dimples as cheeky as always decided it was a good idea to splat mud on my leg. I warned him that if he was going to splat mud at me I would have to get him back. With a big Dimpled Grin he splatted me again! I was still heavily pregnant when we made the Mud bricks and didn't really feel like chasing him around but alas he was after a mud fight so that's what he got.  I got a handful and splatted his legs before he could run away, then he came back for more. He thought it was hilarious throwing mud at Mummy and then trying to escape my mud covered hands.

The mud bricks took about 3-4 days to completely  "bake" in a dry Sunny covered spot in the yard.
After I had been home for a couple of days with the new arrival, Dimples little sister Miss Cherub, I thought it would be nice to do something special with Dimples and spend some quality time with him as I always did. I didn't want our relationship to change so I put Miss Cherub in her Sling and headed up the yard.
Dimples cracked them all out - Mud Bricks, they worked well. He was straight into building mode

Mud Brick Huts and Houses.

Dimples made a flight of stairs, he stacked them up, he made a real house with a stick roof.
We collected some bits and pieces from around the yard from nature to make the mud brick houses real natural pieces of art. He loved it, once he had made a building, he unbuilt it and asked to make a different one.

Dimples balanced them on their sides and experimented with different shaped bricks at different angles then he build a cool house and had to cover it over with the box, and leave it there so he could show Adventures Dad, he was very pleased with his creations. Not only did he made the bricks but he made the house, the roof and the path and decorated them.

Happy Adventures 

If you are looking for Mud Play ideas have a look at these:

MUD Painting - Process Art

Mud Rally Sensory Box

8 Benefits to Playing in the Mud

Our Hidden Happy Camper

Our Hidden Happy Camper is a gag man type of Dummy I guess would be the best description, Dimples and myself made him so he could sit on our property in the bush, under a large Sumac tree in the middle of a paddock, viewable to the road. 

He will be particularly noticeable in Summer and Autumn when the leaves on the tree go from Orange to Red, its the only tree like this in the middle of a very green bush so it stands out as you drive past anyway but now we have something more fun that will catch peoples eye.

Strange?  I know, but I like to think that passes by and visitors get a laugh or are totally confused as to why a man is sitting all on his lonesome in the middle of a paddock with his beer (especially if it happened to be raining at the time).

We threw him together over the weekend, it took me a couple of hours with the help of Dimples.

First we hammered his farm together out of scrap wood.

Using old stockings we stuffed his legs with foam, put some old jeans on him.

Then I used an old towels to wrap around his torso, taped it up and threw on an old shirt, more foam stuffing and a flannelet shirt on top.

Dimples had to cuddle him and sit on his lap at this point, he was quite cuddly.

His hands are simply washing up gloves turned insides out and with wire through them, then stuffed with foam. The wire worked well to turn his fingers into a wave and so we could tie the other around his beer bottle.

Then a old pair of boots tied around the stockings tight and we took him and his head for a drive out to the farm.

There were some strange looks as people seen a random body waving in the back of the Ute.

We used an old dummy head that hair dressers used but you could use one of those kids doll hair play heads or make a scare crow type head with a drawn on face.  Add a hat, a BBQ and a table for his beers to sit on and there you have it. A happy camper.

We sat him in the paddock, he is far enough from the road that you can see him clearly but not well enough to see the details that he is a doll.

He is positioned in a spot so that passers by will see him sitting there but only for a few seconds before they continue on into the bush so they wont have time to turn around and have a good look.  We plan on making a girl in the future. maybe swinging in the tree?

Happy Adventures :)

Cloud Dough Tunnels & Lights

Cloud Dough & Lights: Making Tunnels on the moon.

I am sure you have heard of Cloud Dough, if not you can make it with 1 cup of baby oil & 5 cups of any flour. Mix it all about & it will becomes a silky consistency, it will look a lot like soft sand but can be packed and shaped like smooth dough. You can add glitter or sequins to it if you want, we had some star sequins that got mixed in.

I poured the ingredients in to a tray and let Dimples mix it up & play, he told me it was the moon. So we went with that and made some moon craters, he had some little transformers & robot looking figurines that resembled the space men, aka Astronauts who were on the moon exploring.

Using a couple of small gelato dishes and silicone cupcake cups we made some moon boulders.

I gave dimple some battery operated tea lights, these are really cheap (a pack of ten for $2), I just happened to have them laying around but hadnt used them for anything yet so this was perfect- They are sealed so I let him explore with a couple of these, "Fires on the moon" he called them.
He experimented with burying them, it worked well, under the fine and light cloud dough they gleamed through little gaps and flickered through holes in the "moon sand".

Dimples buried them & buried them, seeing how much dough is needed until the fire went out, it was a fair bit!  The effect of the lights under the dough worked well and they did actually look like little fires in a caves.

Then I got the idea of tunnels, we put the fire together and then put an ice cream scoop with the handle side next to the light. Dimples buried his lights, also burying the tip & handle of the ice cream scoop, I packed it down firmly over the handle & then slowly removed it out, leaving a circular tunnel leading up to the tea lights. It worked well, kneeling down and getting his eyes level with the entrance of the tunnel Dimples could see the lights flickering, then he examined the top of the mound- No light!  He looked back down through the tunnel  "Look mummy the fires are on in the tunnel".

The Flash on the camera mucked up the photo, it does it no justice,  but you can imagine how it would look- no light on top & the flickering of tealights shining only down the tunnel.  It was pretty cool!  Dimples enjoyed playing with the lights under the dough and then experimented trying to make tunnels with his finger & with the handle of the ice cream scoop. Then he would squash them all out and start again.

Our Geo-Board

How to Make & Play with a Geo-Board

Geo = Geometry, So as you may already know Geo Boards are a hands on way to learn about shapes & Math. I made this for my son & it will eventually be accompanied by a water wall, they both will one day be part of an Awesome tree house.

How to make a Geo-Board:

You will need a large wooden board or similar, we found this piece stored in the shed & it is suitable for outdoor use but if you were using it inside you could really use any type of ply or chip board, This piece we have is a thick & sturdy rectangle that can get wet, as it is very thick I imagine it to last a while.

Make sure it is thick enough to hold nails firmly, they need to go in til they're at the back of the board so they don't bend or get flung out with the pressure of the bands & kids pulling at them.

You also of course need nails, a hammer (& if you want to do it properly a ruler & a pencil to mark where you will put your nails evenly, I didn't do this & i should of, I just did it from eye sight & some are a little of centre).

Get your board & rule where you want your nails, put a dot & rule the same length for the next dot, continue until you have a graph of evenly spaced and evenly distant dots & start hammering.  Nail in your nails until the hit the back of the board. If you are using the board by itself & not nailing it to a tree or cubby make sure you nail them in without going through the back, other wise the spiky protruding nails will pose a dangerous hazard for little fingers & will damage whatever surface you hang it. Nails of the same size, height & width should be used so that the geo board is even. Nail them in with a centimeter or 2 hanging out the front so that the bands can fit around them & make sure your graph, and spacing is wide enough so that little fingers or hands can fit between them to take the bands on & off.

There you go. It is easy, just a little time consuming.  Get a packed of coloured rubber bands from your office stationery supplier and your ready to play.

How to use your geo-board:

Make shapes: Basically the only shape you can not make is a circle.

My little man has learnt Triangle, Square, Rectangle, Diamond, Octagon, Hexagon.

What shapes make a Square? He learnt that 2 triangles are in a square or 4 small squares. 

 2 Squares next to each other make a rectangle.

There are lots of small triangles in this triangle below.

If you have an older child they can go further with, what types of triangle.

If you had  a school age child you could again go in depth about the Math and angles in different shapes. Eg; Make a 90 degree angle, where is a 45 degree angle, 2 x 45 degree angles make a.....? & so forth depending on the level your child is at.

My little monkey is 2 yrs and he is learning how many sides are on triangles, hexagons, Octagons along with identifying different shapes and the different colours of the bands.

Further use: Big vs small, Colour recognition, Shape recognition, Basic math, Fine Motor skills for making shapes, focus & attention.

The idea of using different colour bands is so that they can clearly see whats what when you do overlapping like in this triangle above.

Make sure you warn your little one of the flicking, flinging nature of rubber bands so that they don't over stretch them & hurt them self's if the snap or fling back.