After all of the Christmas and New Year MAMA fun I thought I’d share some more of my personal MAMA journey. This involved me being brave and learning to embrace the mess!
The first thing I think catapulted us onto our messy journey was not so much art based but food based! When my son was six months old the joy of weaning started and so did the inevitable mess that comes with helping them learn about new textures and tastes. Being a first time parent I had looked into the many ways of weaning and become thoroughly confused. There seemed to be a lot of benefits to all ways of doing this so I decided to try a bit of all of them and see what happened. My son then decided for me as it was obvious he preferred to be doing things himself! This led to quite a lot of mess but also a lot of enjoyment as it was fun to watch him laugh, pull funny faces, get messy and also eat a bit along the way!
This is where I learnt my MAMA preparation skills; I always made sure I had a mat on the floor to catch the escaped food, a full bib with arms for him and lots of wipes handy. I also had a variety of food types and textures for each meal for him to experiment with!
After finding that my son liked different textures and wasn’t afraid to get messy I went along with my mummy friends to some ‘messy play’ sessions. These trips out were good, not only socially but they also gave me tips and ideas on what I could then try at home.
The first session I went to was full of trays and bowls with different things for the children to play and get messy in such as sand, Cheerios in milk, play-dough, spaghetti and sauce and then there was an area with paints, brushes and bubble wrap – this is where my son spent most of his time and where I believe my interest in trying art based activities started!
Still wanting to do research prior to starting things at home I decided to look for a specific art based group to try things out a bit more. I was lucky to find a lovely art group for babies. We attended a few of these sessions which really consolidated that not only did my son enjoy the experimenting but so did I!
I also really enjoyed having art projects to bring back and put on our fridge/frame and display!
It was this new found realisation and confidence that led me to making our first Christmas cards (see MAMA Activity Post: Trimming the Tree’). And to be honest since then we haven’t looked back and if anything I’d say we’re getting messier!
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Mega Awesome Messy Art 
Lovely idea to frame their work!
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