The Awesomeness of Getting Dirty with Dirt Boxes

Close your eyes and think of your fondest outdoor memory as a kid. Now, by a show of hands...er, iPhone screens...did that memory involve dirt? Yay! I knew it. Now please kick off your shoes, and sit in the grass on a sunny day, with your toes touching the warm dirt. After you are relaxed, read this post and consider investing in some DIRT for your kids this summer. You know you wanna.

My husband and I have super fond memories of dirt. Jon grew up in rural Ohio, playing in dirt piles outside his house. I grew up in the DC suburbs, running barefoot through grass, mud and hot sidewalks every summer. When I made our son’s first Dirt Sensory Box last summer, we had no idea how much the muddy stuff would mean to our household all year long—awakening our love for dirt yet again.

Make a Classic Dirt Sensory Box.

The box is simple and great for small-space living. Easy to pull out, easy to put away. Get a close-able plastic storage bin, add clean dirt and an assortment of toys and scoops that encourage sensory play. (Kiss your measuring cups goodbye.) After a few rounds with dry dirt, set another tub of water next to it, with different sized cups and jugs. Enjoy watching them pour back and forth, eventually making a huge tub of mud. Add rocks, sticks, scoops, spoons for more sensory play. Now go get that iPhone ready for some truly muddy pics.

Sample starter kit. Measuring cups are great for big and little hands.

We bought a 3-pack of Iris stackable boxes from Costco warehouse. We used one for dirt, and one for sand & water.

While small cars and dinosaurs are classics for little boys, they are loved by the little girls in our neighborhood. If having a playdate, add pans and spoons to make MUD PIES!

We used the Dirt Sensory Box all year round. A great way to get outside on winter days.

We keep reserve dirt in a separate container to keep this wildly popular stuff from running out.

Possibly one of my favorite parts of dirt is adding water. Voila, MUD.

And if there’s mud, there will of course be mud PIES. Stay tuned for my next post on good ol’ fashioned mud pies—a huge neighborhood hit.

Dedicate a Corner of Your Garden to Dirt Play

Even more classic than a dirt box, is a dirt pile or garden. Nature’s true dirt box. If you have a home garden, consider carving out a space for your kids. (See below for unfertilized dirt suggestions.) Since many of us are city dwellers, here’s a great example from Little Bins for Little Hands of a half-n-half raised bed garden, perfect for brick patios and small yards.

What kind of dirt should I use?

As natural the stuff as you can find. Which is tricky to do unless you go to an untouched corner of the planet. There are many kinds of dirt: black, fill, topsoil, loam, garden, potting, to name a few. (Thanks to SFGate for the quick tutorial.) I suggest reading up before racing out to buy dirt on a Saturday. Because, confession time, I bought fertilized potting soil for my son’s first dirt box. A huge no-no. For which, I shall blame pregnancy brain in the summer heat. Yep. I’ll go with that.

1. Landscape Supply or Nursery. We love this suggestion from Parents magazine: screened topsoil or loam (a mix of sand, silt + clay). In addition, I suggest finding a quality nursery that sells bulk not bagged. Ask if they will sell you less than 1 cubic yard if you pick it up. Unless you want a dirt pile instead of dirt box! I’ll bring my kids over for a playdate.

2. Backyard Dirt. Grab a shovel. Use your best judgement of your property, and choose a spot that is away from chemically-treated areas.

3. Organic Produce Farm. If your family goes organic berry picking in the spring, ask the owner if they will sell you a small batch of their topsoil. You can always pick the roots out yourself.

4. Hardware stores. Consider purchasing sand if you go to a hardware store. They generally sell to gardeners and carry lots of bagged fertilized blends, making it hard to interpret the labeling.

When we travel to Ohio to visit Grandma & Grandpa, our son makes a beeline from the car to their garden, ready to play. It’s full of nutrients from responsible farming and becomes a fabulous mud pit when it rains. We also bring home 2-3 buckets of their farm dirt to use in our dirt box.

Health benefits of good clean dirt.

Since spending a year in dirt piles and making mud pies, I decided to research health benefits of dirt. We’ve all heard of mud masks, mud baths and the Tough Mudder (Am I wearing a mud mask right now? Maybe.) And we’ve all heard the negative buzz about hand sanitizers and EMFs—super difficult topics for parents. What I didn’t know, is that dirt, good clean dirt, has healing properties for both issues.

Dirt is rich in soil borne organisms (SBOs) which are gaining acclaim in the fight against autoimmune disorders and inflammation issues. Many organizations are making the case for interacting with dirt, even eating a little dirt in our diet, (what?!) much like we eat probiotics for it’s good bacteria.

Links to check out: 2-minute read | 2-minute read

The first time you see your kid experience mud between their toes is incredible. And to consider there are health benefits is even more wonderful.

Also running barefoot across the natural earth (dirt, sand, rock, ocean), called Earthing or Grounding, can be medicinal. Studies are emerging, suggesting that Earthing is an excellent way to combat inflammation and reduce the impact of EMFs surrounding our society today.

Links to check out: 2-minute read | 2-minute read | Get coffee

So what am I saying? Dirt can be super friendly. Read up on it. For now, put your iPhone down, grab those kids and play in the dirt. You know you wanna!

Hello!