05/25/2026
Yes!!!! I hear so much that they're not learning anything, they're only playing. If you get down on their level, let go of whatever expectations that someone assigned to kids, and really observe, you will see what they are really learning because not everything is about academics.
When is a mud kitchen, not a mud kitchen?
When it’s filled with a smorgasbord of different textures and resources.
When you introduce sand, mud, petals grass cuttings, used tea bags and other natural resources into the outdoors kitchens you are stepping into a goldmine for sensory and multimodal learning.💚
More than just mud
In early childhood development, “modalities” refer to the different pathways children use to take in information, express themselves, and understand the world.
By intentionally leaning into these modalities, you can turn simple messy play into a powerful, whole brain learning experience. ❤️
▪️Sensory modalities
Tactile/Touch, Visual/Sight, Auditory/Hearing, Olfactory/Smell,
Gustatory/Taste, not recommended 🫣
▪️Kinesthetic Modality (Gross and fine motor movement, physical actions)
▪️Linguistic Modality (Spoken and written language, vocabulary)
▪️Textual Modality (Signs, labels, menus, and print awareness)
▪️Symbolic/Mathematical Modality (Numbers, counting, measuring, and representations)
It’s more than just a mud kitchen. The magic happens when you combine modalities. Mix it up, combine, remove the limitations.
When a child squishes sand between their fingers (tactile), describes it as “damp” (linguistic), and counts out three stone “meatballs” to put on top (mathematical), their brain is making massive, interconnected leaps in development. ❤️🎉
What will you add to your ‘texture or sensory ‘ kitchen ?
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Images from Knighton Day Nursery
