How Will You Celebrate International Mud Day?

Dear Exchange Community, This year, perhaps more than ever, International Mud Day gives us all a chance to celebrate the joys of childhood – like making mud pies, or squishing toes in mud! Here’s a brief history of how international Mud Day began: In 2009 at the World Forum for Early Childhood Care and Education in Belfast the idea of International Mud Day had its beginnings. Two members of the Nature Action Collaborative for Children, Gillian McAuliffe from Western Australia and Bishnu Bhatta from Nepal, discussed the challenges children faced when playing in mud in each other’s context. Gillian reflected on the lack of mud as Perth is situated on a sandy plain and also the reluctance of the culture to ‘get dirty.’ Bishnu on the other hand had lots of mud but many children did not have enough clothes to be able to get them dirty or soap to wash them. On her return to Australia, Gillian who was at that time the Director of Teaching and Learning at Bold Park Community School, told this story to a group of seven and eight year olds. The Bold Park children decided they could send clothes to the children in Nepal so that they could play in the mud. They raised $1,000 in three weeks and sent it to Bishnu to buy some clothes for some children there. So in September 2009 Bishnu did this and arranged a special day for the children of the Panchkhal orphanage, which included their first meat meal in five months. Since then the two groups have celebrated a very special bond and played in the mud together, although in different countries.

How will you celebrate? The Out of the Box Kit, A Muddy First, has some ideas you might find helpful. You can celebrate on the "official" Mud Day, July 29 – or any time this week or next. And here’s a fun video Bright Horizons shared with us to help you get excited about celebrating! Here’s to childhood joy! Nancy Rosenow on behalf of our Exchange team

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