dinosaur mud...yuck!

Like most kids, my boys like to get messy and explore everything.  I try to set up some sort of activity for them to do each day if possible, and I thought it might be nice to share what we do.  There are so many super creative parents out there who do what we do much prettier, and I'm sure you can find that out there, but you know what?  We have fun.  Lots of fun!  So it's messy and a little crazy and may give you heartburn to see how little precaution I take in anticipation of cleanup (I seem to forget that part is required) but I hope you enjoy these little glimpses into how we get our hands dirty and our brains in motion.

The first "up-tivity" as Nikola calls them is Dinosaur Mud.  It's very simple, and though the mess can get easily out of hand (and boy, did I ever let it), the cleanup is pretty easy and the prep is even easier.

What do you need?
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Food coloring of your choice
- A container to put that in
- Toys to play with in the "mud"

Sounds simple, right?  Totally.  Just mix it up and you're done.  You want the cornstarch to just barely be wet, so more cornstarch than water.  To get the brownish color, we just added a couple of different colors and mixed until it looked gross enough to be mucky dinosaur mud.  We've used a couple of different containers to do this in, from a small pie pan (in photos) to a large plastic bin and they have had fun with everything.  When I do it in the pie pan, it's just mud.  In the large plastic bin, I add some rocks and trees and create more of a muddy dinosaur habitat.  As you can see from the photos, it gets messy, but dude.  It's just cornstarch and water, nothing a wet rag or a trip to the sink won't just clean right up.  My boys were amused with this for well over an hour, until it was all dried up and caked on their hands, which made them want to walk around and be dinosaurs for a while with their "scales" on their hands.  (In the photo of the kids, they are both doing their best two claw T-Rex impressions.)  Let your kids get messy for a while, you won't regret it!