We are officially seeing signs of spring here and there, that means it is mud kitchen time! We absolutely love a good mud kitchen and for a very long time we did not have one. This past fall, we decided that it was time we had one at our house as well. Instead of buying one, we decided to build one to fit our ages and the size of our family.
Benefits of a Mud Kitchen
There are truly so many benefits to a mud kitchen but some of the reasons we love it are for the creativity, sensory play, and fine motor skills! Interestingly enough, we built our mud kitchen at the end of the season and still used it throughout the winter. My kids absolutely love being able to get messy and I truly believe the dirtier the clothes, the better the day! The mud kitchen fosters so much independence. Frequently, my kids develop their own restaurant, come up with their own menu, and create recipes for them. Then, they spend time adding ingredients, mixing, cooking, and decorating. The amount of planning and creativity that goes into it is amazing. Plus, add on the sensory play of getting your hands in the dirt and the mud.
Making it a Size that Works for Us
Something about mud kitchens is that typically they are designed to be toddler height. With four kiddos and two of them being school age, we decided to adapt our mud kitchen to fit the needs of our family. That included making it taller and bigger than the typical mud kitchens. We also decided that with four kiddos that it would better serve us if we created it to be 360 degree play, meaning all the storage would be underneath and they could walk around the entire structure. The best part about building your own is that you can design it to fit your needs.
We wanted to ensure that all of our kids could comfortably play. This meant building a larger mud kitchen than most and making it tall enough that my older kids felt that the size was appropriate. In order to make it work for the littles, we added a long bench stool and a shorter end stool so they could participate in the fun as well!
How to Make a Mud Kitchen
Since the mud kitchen will live outside, we built a frame out of pressure treated 2×4‘s and then we made the table top out of cedar fence planks. We also used the same materials to create stools for the littles to stand on. We cut out holes to create a space for some sinks. Since we don’t have a back like many mud kitchens to store supplies, I created a shelf underneath with cedar planks as well. Happy to share our dimensions and more detailed post if anyone is interested!
Another fun outdoor activity that we have done!
Leave a Reply