Invitation to play – a beach themed mud kitchen

Our homemade mud kitchen has been getting a lot of use this year. To mix it up a little I thought I would set up an invitation to play for my children, using some of the treasure we brought back from the beach earlier this year.

Every year we try to have a holiday by the sea and this year we brought back a lot of it with us. As we were packing up the car the children were still slipping sea glass and shaped pebbles into their bags, desperate to bring a little of their holiday back to London with them.

I love our beach treasures and we’ve crafted with them – making sea glass pictures, a sea glass sun catcher jar and a beach themed sensory bin.

I thought it would be fun to set up an invitation to play with our mud kitchen and give them a summer holiday special beach themed mud kitchen. It only took me a few minutes to clean it up from their last play session, then I placed smooth pebbles in a container, alongside a tub of beach sand we brought back with us, water, sea glass, shells and broken pottery.

The children decided to create mud pie beach cakes, and carefully mixed mud, beach sand and water. They decorated each cake with a sea shell and then left them to bake in the sunshine.

I think they enjoyed having a theme for their play and it was lovely to talk about our holiday and all the different treasures we picked up. The children are already planning their menu for the next time their Beach hut kitchen opens for business.