Messy outdoor play with our new mud kitchen

A mud kitchen has been on my mental wish list for the garden for a little while now, particularly after watching Sophie have so much fun with the mud kitchens during our last stay at Coombe Mill. With our outdoor time being more restricted to the garden due to lockdown, we finally decided to buy one.

 

 

The one we chose was from MRCSteelDesigns on Etsy. It’s available in a variety of different colours. There are two bowls for mud mixing and four “hobs” for imaginative play. The mud kitchen also comes with a set of utensils and hooks to hang them up on. You can choose whether the bowls are set together or split either side of the hob, and whether to add a top and bottom shelf or both. We went for the natural mud kitchen with a bottom shelf and the bowls split either side of the hob.

 

 

The natural wood version of the mud kitchen needs to be treated or painted before using outdoors so it was a couple of days before the children could play with it . I had also added a few old trays and containers to the bowls and utensils.

 

 

Sophie and Thomas were soon busy collecting soil and water from the garden to make mud. Sophie had lots of fun making various mud dishes. The little shelf below made the perfect “oven” to bake her mud pies in.

 

 

 

Thomas was mostly absorbed in taking all the utensils off the pegs and collecting mud rather than making mud pies. He did enjoy getting messy though and being able to play with the mud. This turned into throwing it at his sister a few days later. Sophie and I weren’t quite so keen on this! I’m all for messy play with mud and accepting the necessary washing that goes alongside it but I’m drawing the line at mud fights!

 

 

 

Sophie is really enjoying having a mud kitchen to play with. She confided in me that she missed being able to play with the mud kitchen at school as it’s part of the Reception play area. I’m glad that it’s something that she’s now able to play with regularly at home.

 

 

 

Please note that this is not a sponsored post nor was this item gifted for review. We chose and bought the mud kitchen ourselves and have not been offered any incentive to promote it.