Dirt

Here’s the dirt on dirt. Children love it, and parents are always cleaning it. Does that sum it up? Actually no. The days of playing in the dirt without an agenda or plan until the dinner bell rang are fading away and quickly being replaced with structured activities or limited free play in perfectly groomed and manicured parks and playgrounds. Even worse, time spent outside is being replaced with technology laden time indoors. Independent hands on discovery and exploration of the world is being limited by clean, sanitary, and safe adult approved activities. Creativity, curiosity, and flexible thinking, are decreasing while sensory issues, difficulties in problem solving, immune diseases, and allergies are on the rise. I’m not saying that dirt is the answer to all of our children’s problems, but a little more dirt in our children’s lives wouldn’t be so bad.

You may or may not know that my family moved from an apartment into a brand new home with a huge yard – correction – dirt pad back in January. Everything in our house was new and clean, free from scratches, fingerprints…and dirt. If you know me well, you know that I’m a tidy girl, and I like things clean and orderly. The very fact that this brand new clean home sits in the middle of this huge lot of dirt is very juxtaposed. In fact it is nearly impossible to go outside our house and back in without bringing in some of the dirt.

After being cooped up in our apartment for so long all my children want to do is go outside and roam. Actually, it’s not because they were cooped up in an apartment, it’s because they are children. Since our move they have discovered a new freedom, one where they just open the doors and go in and out of the house on their own. None of this new freedom is lost on them, or me. Our time in the apartment made it very clear to me that cleaning up dirt is really a privilege. How lucky are we that we have space to roam and explore?

They are learning what the Earth feels like, and smells like, and maybe even tastes like. They are getting uncomfortable and learning how to tolerate uncomfortable for just a little while. They are experiencing things that a playground and a living room don’t and can’t offer.

And what’s better than dirt? Dirt with water! What does it make? Mud. Awesome sticky mud that feels slimy, and heavy, and moves slowly – a splendid sensory experience.

In our yard, water runs as rivers in the dirt and makes canyons ( a perfect lesson opportunity for land and water forms) and ideal little roads for little cars. It makes batter for cakes and mud pies.

There is a lot of research out there that suggests we actually need to increase our children’s exposure to dirt. You may or may not be familiar with the “hygiene hypothesis” which states that lack of exposure to dirt, specifically the microbes found in dirt leads to an increased risk of auto-immune diseases and allergies. Basically, our children are suffering because we are simply too clean. As parents we work hard to ensure that our children are developing normally, we expose them to new environments that challenge their brain, and help them learn social skills – yet are we doing the same for their immune system? Thorn McDade, PhD associate professor and director of the Laboratory for Human Biology research at Northwestern University says, “Just as the brain needs stimulation, and input, and interaction to develop normally, the young immune system is strengthened by exposure to everyday germs so that it can learn to adapt and regulate itself.” (1) Perhaps even more interesting is the research that suggests dirt is good for the brain! “Playing in dirt increases happiness, and enhances learning.” (2) A 2010 study done by Sage Colleges in Tory, New York, found that a bacterium naturally found in soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, can accelerate learning and brighten moods by stimulating neuron growth and raising serotonin levels. It seems then that we should only be increasing our children’s opportunities to be outdoors and in the dirt instead of minimizing them.

So go ahead, play in the dirt, let your shoes get muddy – because afterwards you can show them how to scrub those shoes clean, and they will love that just as much!

A very special thank you to P.Donohue Shortridge for her research. 

References:

1.  “Is Dirt Good for Kids? Are parents keeping things too clean for their kids’ good?”  Webmd  http://www.webmd.com/parenting/d2n-stopping-germs-12/kids-and-dirt-germs

2. “5 Reasons to Let Your Kids Play in the Dirt”  Takepart.com  http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/03/26/5-reasons-let-your-kids-play-dirt

3. “The Dirt on Dirt”  National Wildlife Federation  https://www.nwf.org/pdf/Be%20Out%20There/Dirt_Report_2012.pdf