How Often Do You Let Your Kids Play In Actual DIRT?

[Lolli]

We have no dirt our entire back yard is concrete and out front yard is mostly concrete. Ds still manages to get very dirty but- he is currently covered in sand.

You've inspired me Bath. We might have to start work on the herb tubs out the front and plant some strawberries in pots too.

Ah well. Ds has a dog to lick his face- that makes me feel better!!

[Heaven]

I totally agree!! Dirt is good!! DD will be able to play in the dirt when she's bigger. I remember how much fun I had as a kid.
Dirt doesn't worry me at all, germs from people are what worry me.

[Bathsheba]

Definitely Heaven! And the chemical ****tails inside our homes are far worse than anything you'd find in your average backyard digging patch.

I remember some of the best fun was had as a kid was to be found in the gutter out the front after heavy rain. Sadly I don't let my kids do this though. It was a different situation back in the mid 1970's in a country town... I don't think i would trust the gutters of a major city. But it's this kind of play that I think can still be encouraged in the backyard... really basic stuff. You learn so much... (do gum-nuts float?) as well as really exercising the imagination. I think that when it comes to playing kids these days are always told what to do, how to play, "this is how you use this toy"... it's all been decided for them. There's alot to be said for showing kids the backdoor and letting them find their own fun. It teaches them to be more than "consumers" of entertainment... it teaches them to be the creators of it. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that... if you give kids everything they need in terms of fun then how exactly are they going to learn to be inventive? I find that with dirt, and found objects kids have more "ownership" of the whole thing. They love the fact that the grown-ups have had no part in it.... it hasn't been made by adults, the grown-ups aren't going to come out and tell them how to do it better or "right". They themselves are in control. I find that also because they own the process they are more protective of it. If i give them a toy from a shop they might use it... but they also tend to mis-use it... I have observed things that they have made in the dirt that they have treated much more respectfully. My boys worked together making a long row of pine tree nuts and daises all across the sand... they both seemed to have an understanding that the rows shouldn't be mucked up... maybe because it took them so long to make it. If it was Lego they wouldn't have been so careful. There's a photo of them doing this in my FB album. The rows were there for nearly a week!

[Heaven]

I totally agree Bath. Before DD was born DH and I talked about not getting her too many toys and trying to mainly buy toys that she could play with however she wanted rather than toys that are specifically for one thing and used in one way iykwim?? I can't even think of any examples now!! pmsl.