Welcome to story led messy play

Hello! I’m Marium, and I run Messy Milly. I’m a local girl, born and raised in New Malden and now I have the absolute joy of being able to raise my own lovely daughter here.  

My day job is working as an optometrist, but prior to that I worked in schools, supporting children with a diverse range of backgrounds, languages and abilities. I love working with children and it is my mission to inject fun into their education wherever I can. 

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The birth of Messy Milly

I started reading to my daughter when she was only a few weeks old. I noticed how much she enjoyed listening to my voice. We used to snuggle up and read the books of my childhood, contentedly cuddling. 

That phase of motherhood did not last!

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My daughter developed her gross motor skills significantly quicker than her communication skills, and was soon darting all over the place, chomping on anything and everything. Reading quickly became chasing, and much of my day consisted of me saying 'no', rectifying chaos and fishing things out of her mouth. 

I am a baby led weaning mama who has accepted mess as a part of my life. I created a Montessori style home environment, and firmly believe that messy play is a hugely important part of a child's development. I was really disappointed to find a lack of messy play options local to us. During the school holidays I managed to find some messy play events - but they all used inedible materials, so it ended up being very tiring policing my toddler’s mouth.
All of this came together and inspired the creation of my story-led messy play! Incorporating reading, roaming and delicious treats. We get to read an amazing story, explore it together and incorporate different aspects of the early years’ curriculum - developing fine and gross motor skills, communication and providing mouth safe sensory play. All materials can be vegan and gluten free, so safe for almost every baby.

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My approach to learning
Within education, there is a debate on the benefits of same-aged group classes compared to mixed age groups. Being a mum with friends with children of same and different age groups, I am seeing the pros and cons in real time. For me it is delightful to see older children modelling behaviour that the younger children are soaking up much more than if it were an adult. A mixed group also allows alternative power dynamics than what the child is used to in their family setting or in a single aged group. I believe this variety in experience to be truly enriching for a developing mind.

My lesson plans are designed to be built upon or simplified, depending on the group, to allow a growth across ages. The same story/play can be used to focus on different learning objectives.

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The story we are currently using, 'Handa's Surprise' is utilised throughout early years and primary school, within the national curriculum. It is endlessly adaptable. It’s a seemingly simple story about animals and fruit that lends itself to the visual representation of a fruit basket (that the children can play with and eat), dramatisation by the animals (involving fun masks), and related messy play (for example, developing fine motor skills by picking fruit slices out of jelly).

By simply reading the story, not all children would have understood what was happening, but the immersive experience provides an excellent learning framework. As the children get older, we can continue to use this framework to explore African culture, landscape, clothes, gift giving etc. The messy play activities will also evolve – for example, in the previously mentioned fruit/jelly exercise, these fine motor skills are challenged on a repeat session as the fruit slices get thinner and amount of jelly (and thus resistance) increases. 

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So let’s play!
I know that other parents are in the same situation of wanting their children to experience varied play opportunities in addition to parks, soft play, music and dance. If you want messy play without the planning and mess, come along to our story-led messy play!

Contact me on messy.milly.messy.play@gmail.com to book a taster session.