Getting Muddy W/ Allison Bakkum
Did you ever make mud pies as a kid?
There’s something about getting messy and muddy that just makes things more fun, no matter what age you are.
“My Mud Kitchen is Rad” is a fun rhyming book about getting outside and having good not-so-clean fun in a “mud kitchen”! Fun foods, rhyming, and adorable illustrations make it an awesome book to accompany some fun and messy sensory play!
Here’s what we liked the most about “My Mud Kitchen is Rad”!
There are a wide variety of foods in this kitchen!
A variety of fun and interesting foods from various cultures are mentioned in the book, which is a great way to get kids talking about cultural differences as well as inspire them to try new foods.
It’s a dyslexia friendly book for kids
“My Mud Kitchen is Rad” is available in a dyslexia friendly font, making it an accessible book for kids who struggle with Dyslexia.
It emphasizes that getting messy can be fun!
For many kids, going out and getting messy can be daunting, but this book approaches it from such a fun and silly angle that kids will want to try playing in the mud. Mud suits are encourages in the book, and so is playing on wet and gloomy days.
We got to talk to author Allison Bakkum about her book and how she was inspired by a real life mud kitchen she built for her son.
“My son, Flynn, attended a Nature Preschool here in MN. They had a giant mud kitchen there and he loved it, so I went on the internet and found some free spec sheets of how to make my own! I contacted the local paint store because they had some pallets sitting outside and, of course, they let me have them for free. I then went on Facebook or craigslist (Can’t remember) and asked if anyone had a free old sink…turns out many people did and we’re happy to give me one for free. Then I went to the local Re-store (Habitat for Humanity). Apparently they can’t re-sell old faucets so they had a trash can full of them and let me take one (and a cute little drinking water faucet) for free. I had some old alphabet stickers laying around and some white paint so I threw stickers on it that said MUD KITCHEN, painted over them with white paint, and peeled off the stickers to reveal the MUD KITCHEN. I hand created a mud kitchen entirely for free for my son. And he spent hours outside playing in it.”
The book is available in a dyslexic friendly font and emphasizes sensory play. Allison shared with us why these aspects of the book were so important to her.
“My son has ADHD, and I try to get him outside as much as I can. Nature has a very calming effect on him. He loves the sensory aspect of mud, and playing and creating. He also has Dyslexia, and I’m a Dyslexia reading teacher and tutor, so I printed in a Dyslexia font as well as an original font. Both to help with the ease of reading, and bring awareness to the Dyslexic population. 1 in 5 people in the world have Dyslexia. It equates to about 20% of the population.”
In the book, a little boy and his sister make a variety of foods in they mud kitchen. We asked Allison what foods she would serve in her Mud Kitchen.
“Anything that my kids wanted to make with me:) Kids are wildly imaginative and we’ve made so many things in the past. My kids even love to make creative foods from things they find in nature; Reindeer soup, Pinecone punch, junk pie. It’s fun to pull up grass and throw it in a pan or dish too. MY son even put toys in his creations. Anything goes and your imagination is limitless. It’s so much fun to play with kids! They have the best ideas.”
They certainly do!
That’s why this week we’ve decided to get muddy too and get those creative ideas flowing in our very own mud kitchen!
Check out the Mud Kitchen we built here!
You can by Allison Bakkum’s “My Mud Kitchen is RAD” on her website.
Be sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook as well for regular updates!
