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

I'm hearing more and more often the benefits of letting children play in dirt. From increasing immunity to ingesting micro-flora (healthy bacteria) that medical experts now think is vital to health. I'm hearing that the human oragnism was designed to live with other organisms. There is even a thread in BB on how having a certain type of worm in your gut alleviates wheat allergies. It all makes sense to me.

But to me it still seems that most kids are discouraged from getting dirty. Astro-turf has replaced grass and soil at so many childcare centres and schools. Everything must be clean and sterile.

I understand the need for infection control... I'm not disputing that. However I also believe that kids should be allowed to get dirty in good CLEAN dirt. I would say that it is less toxic for a child to play in a digging patch at home that it would be at the local Maccas play centre that is so often situated right next to where the cars are queuing for their take-away... think of all those fumes! Think of all the heavy metals that have accumulated on the equipment after day after day of exposure to exhaust. Yeuch!

Do you have a digging patch at home. No, not just sand. Or do your kids help in the vegie garden?

We have a digging patch that we occasionally top up with sand... but as well as that my boys are allowed to roll their toy trucks etc through certain areas of our garden that haven't been planted out yet. There are at least 3 areas that they are allowed to dig in actual dirt. Yep, they get filthy but we don't have any allergies or more than the occasional cold in our house. They also help in the vegie patch looking for spuds etc when they are ready.

Dirt has such amazing play value for a kid, and it's free!!! Hear the squeals of delight when they find a worm! Our kids have also found strange items: old coins, bits of crockery, an old medal.... they are always looking for "treasure". Besides their train sets i reckon digging in the dirt has given me the most precious time in that it has fully occupied my boys in a positive way... they don't seem to fight over dirt LOL unlike a particular toy, there's always enough to go round! :D

My kids are outside in it every day. I have the ring around my bathtub to prove it LOL. My lot are seriously into playing with trucks and tractors and have their own little 'farms' set up all over the place with roads that they drive the trucks and tractors along to visit each other LOL. But then we have the benefit of having a huge area for them to just go wild doing it.

daily. my DD's day care has dirt and a veggie garden she comes home filthy but loves it.
if we are outside she is digging up something lol

My kids play in dirt all the time! We have a pile in the backyard left over from building and chose to leave it there for them. They love it!

A has recently discovered that if he leaves a brick on the dirt then tomorrow there will be worms under it ;) So funny!

My DD ate her first mouthful of sand the other day ewww she was shocked at first but then as she crunched away it bought back my memorys from child hood of mud pies and all things messy and i thought how much fun that was. So with DD i have learnt to not be so strict when it comes to dirt and just enjoy the look of sheer bliss on her face as she gets covered in muck :lol:

We don't have a 'digging patch' but thats because a) we have a cat who would use it as a poop patch, and b) we're renting a 'new' house in a new estate with no established garden, just grass, so unless we landscaped the backyard for them, a dirt patch would look a bit out of place come inspections/moving out. So if we didn't have a cat who would defoul it :lol: and were in a more established place, then yes she'd probably dig in actual dirt more often.

BUT, she does play in the grass, and some patches of dirt in the grass (after its been poo checked LOL!) and soggy muddy wet grass LOL. She's wrecked some pants and shirts, that are now her outside clothes hahahahaha. She does have fun, although it all stops when she gets a bit precious if theres grass on her face or in her hair :rolleyes:

All the time - I used to clean a dirt ring off the bathtub with monotonous regularity but then I got smart and now if I see that they're extra dirty I hide the plug and make them shower. They look so funny before their shower with dirt all over them and I get a wierd kind of pleasure from seeing a real result from a shower - the sight of dirt sluicing away always cheers me up (yeah, I'm a freak).
We built a sandpit and they dig through the sand to the dirt underneath and now they only play in the dirt corner of the sand-pit.
What they really enjoy is when it rains and they can play in mud. I will admit that even at the ripe old age of 34 I enjoy squeezing mud in my toes, it's such a nice sensation.

Excellent! :D

Trill: yep, my boys do the same: make roads and construction sites. They are out there doing that for literally hours!

I find that better childcare centres tend to have digging patches for the kids and encourage them to explore the natural world rather than the artificial.

Pony: I share your strange pleasure at sluicing of real dirt... i feel less guilty about using the water I think.

I don't really have a choice! They just DO.

DS has an awesome patch out the front under the tree.

Yep we're dirt fans here too.
Vege patch, garden, general yard. No princesses here lol.

I also suspect that connecting to the actual soil has a positive mood altering affect. Something to do with rebalancing our electrical selves. Like going for a walk along the beach... or in a rainforest KWIM? I think that thrusting your hands into the ground is literally "grounding". I know that my kids seem to benefit by being sent outside after maybe watching too much TV... they always seem irritable after too much screen time (probably because the radiation upsets their electrical balance) ... a digging patch experience often seems to remedy things.

we have dirt piles and vegie patches and E will be allowed to explore to her hearts content - Daddy already lets her put her hands in the vegie gardens (and then they get hosed off - the cold water is a bit of a shock for her lol)

I know when I do any gardening I feel calm and happy no matter what my mood before I start.

DS has a dirt patch in the backyard. When we stay with my cousins he is always black with dirt by tea time, from playing with the boys all day outside.

I'd never choose to send DS to a school or CC where they have a fake astro turf play yard. I always look for a centre with a yard like any normal backyard. Trees, dirt, grass, flowers. The kindy here eve has chooks and lambs runing around the yard

yes i agree, my kids seem more equalized and at peace after a good mud throwing session or dig under the tree.
taylah loves building things with the rocks lol

I dont have any dirt in my backyard :( ... but when we visit my sister her DD and my DS have great fun in her backyard playing in the dirt and moving it around in the dump truck. I think it is essential for kids to explore the outside world, and get DS to places where he can do as at every chance...

I'm going to be the first to admit I am a bit funny about getting in the dirt, or getting too messy in general! I really agree with the benefits of it, but it takes me a little bit of biting the tongue not to ensure DD is always looking neat and clean in her clothes. The other day we planted a tree and DH was mixing a load of compost with soil to go in with the tree. The compost was lovely and rich and DD loved putting her hands in and transferring all of the worms to their new home in the tree hole. So I do probably need to provide for more of this type of play. We will be moving to a new house soon with no landscaping, so there will be loads of dirt to play with. I will make a conscious effort to let her get outside and enjoy it!

There is a digging patch at DD's kindy - the kids love it! It basically says in the enrolment info that if you have a problem with your child getting dirty and not wearing shoes while at kindy, then perhaps it is not the best place for them. It is for this reason that I love it the place. My kids are always outside, getting dirty or turning on the tap (connected to our tank) and playing with the water. The only time I ever have a problem with it is when I have them all dressed nicely, ready to go out somewhere - then they are banned from getting dirty! :lol:

DS is a huge dirt fan and I love watching him play in it. He'll grab his loaders and tractors and off he goes. Very messy but nothing a bath won't fix :)
I'm a huge believer in everything you've said Bath, my brothers kids were wrapped up in cotton wool and not allowed to get dirty at all and they're always sick!

My kids play in dirt every day. Our school even has a digging patch.

Oh we have dirt everywhere, we are doing up our back yard so dirt patches all over the place. DH lets DS sit in the trailer of dirt when shovelling it out for the garden etc. He loves to get in there with his dumptruck. He'll spennd half hour digging rocks & dirt from the driveway or under the tree. Just loves it!!!

Rural lifestyle property, so lots of dirt, grass, cow poo etc. DD2 just loves outside, espcially at the moment as there are broad beans to pick and eat. DD1 tends to go out with DH when he is digging in the veggie patch.

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!! :lol:

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.

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!

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.

We don't have much dirt for DS to play in with this house. He has a sandpit but he likes to play in the dirt around it. The problem is that it has bits of junk all through it like metal shards. One ofhis toys had a magnetic connector on it and when we picked it up from the dirt it was covered in little bits that had stuck to the magnet. But our next house will be more rural and lots more fun. Only 2 months to go....

DD is allowed to roam outside and play with what ever she likes... she LOVES playing with the pebbles near the pool fence, likes eating daisy's and sometimes even grass.
She's allowed to pat the dogs (some parents wont DARE let their kids touch a dog), she patted a frog from the pool the other day.
She gets washed throughly when we get inside but that gorgeous MUD smile stays while she's outside playing... lol my FB pics prove it... :p

I am all for little kids getting dirty, i went and bought her 'OUTSIDE CLOTHES' from the op shop as at one stage she was spending atleast 2hrs a day outside getting dirty!

Have a friend who's little boy doesn't get much outside time and when he does it's on a blanket and he hardly EVER gets dirt on him, he is always sick... i just wanna babysit him for a day or two and let him run free with DD, no more gross germs and he might be a well boy again!

I don't think my life would be worth living if I tried to stop DS1 playing in the dirt. He loves it and is always filthy, but it doesn't bother me. Our neighbour is from the country and is regularly telling us how much she likes seeing DS1 covered in dirt. :lol:
DS2 is already out in the yard crawling in dirt, eating dry leaves and chewing on sticks.

I went out this afternoon and realised on the way that I probably should have bathed both the boys before I left the house, or at least wiped them off better. :redface: Luckily they are boys... people seem happy for boys to be dirty. Too bad if I ever have a girl, if she is anything like her mum she will be covered in dirt most of the time too. :D

DS plays in dirt everyday :) When we get our own place Im hoping to have a 'designated digging space' for the kids and hide cheap cars and different stuff in there so they can find them.

We play in dirt multiple times daily! :D DD is also very fond of eating dirt, so much so that her poo sometimes looks like worm castings and DH has remarked “I think it’s a waste to flush this, we should be putting it on our veges” (this is an exact quote, no joke!).

My kids play in the dirt everyday. At home and at school!

DD gets into everything. we are lucky to rent a house with a big garden and have landlords who dont really care what we do to it as they are going to flatten the plot and build on it when we eventually move out we now have a veg patch and she loves to dig in it! she gets so messy some days!! but loves it!
I think its so important for kids not to be over sterilised!! i remember kissing my cat as a child and having mouthfulls of fluff, eating some of the most horrible things and playing in some pretty yuck places and i dont think it does any harm, aslong as its not bad germ ridden, its fine, thats my thoughts anyway.

I have horses - so when we do have kids, they're unlikely to avoid dirt & germs! :D

And DH is a miner... as dirty as they come, so with our genetics, our kids will never be out of the dirt for long.

now i feel VERY:redface::redface: no my kids dont YES i agree dirt is good would nto even debate it cause i know its good.

i live in a highest home with a pool out back so kids dont go out side enless supervised. As for playing in dirt i rent there is not a designated spot here. Our 16 month old is allergic to sand flies and me im allergic to the spiders out side every time i go in garden my leg swells up with some kinda bite. There is mosquitoes EVERYWHERE out side ya cant even go down stairs with out being chewed alive, getting in the car is a dash too... Ds whom is 4 cant be trusted to be out side by himself i get chewed alive and so would he plus he would sneakingly eat leaves and bugs and all sorts he is an eataholic.