When children have the chance to create freely with their hands, the process can be endlessly dynamic – challenging one moment and soothing the next. Manipulating materials by hand encourages a child to explore, create, experiment and problem solve. 

This week we're partnering with Tinkerlab, a place where parents can find “easy and actionable ways” to support their child’s creativity.  Tinkerlab’s founder, Rachelle Doorley,  offers many unusual and exciting ideas to get creative with your children at home. 

In our last post we proposed sinking fingers into flour to make play dough; today let’s use those little hands to sculpt some mud!  Rachelle’s blog provides a tutorial for setting up a Mud-Pie Kitchen in your own backyard: http://tinkerlab.com/mud-pie-kitchen-beta-version/  A mud-pie kitchen not only sets the stage for creative play around cooking and baking but it’s a way to provide a little more structure to contain the chaos of playing with mud!

As purveyors of products that spark a child’s imagination, we at Livie & Luca and Mosey Handmade are firm believers that play is vital for a child’s well being.  We also know it can be messy. L & L shoes are made to be washed  - just throw them in the machine after the backyard kitchen is complete and the mud-pies are out of the oven!

While you're at it, snap a few photos and enter this week's giveaway (details below)! Share your photos of Outdoor Play on Instagram for a chance to win A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors by Tinkerlab, a Mosey Handmade for Livie & Luca crown and a pair of Livie & Luca shoes - winner's choice! 

GIVEAWAY RULES:

• Enter on Instagram only
• Follow @livieandluca, @moseyhandmade and @tinkerlab 
• For 1 entry, tag a friend on our post! Each tag = additional entries
• For 2 entries, post your favorite outdoor play photo(s), mention each brand and use #LLandMO 
• Share with your friends!
• Enter by 3/19/17. Winner announced on Instagram on 3/20/17

Entrant must own the rights to the photo(s) submitted. Account must be public. Giveaway accounts will not be considered. By entering this Joy & Wonder Series giveaway, you confirm you (account owner) are 18+ years of age, release Instagram of all responsibilities and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.