Carter loooooves the water! He is a water baby, that’s for sure! He always wants to wash his hands and play in the sink, and he will stay in bathtime as long as possible, long after the water has started turning cold!
So as you can imagine, water activities are a big hit in our house! Here are three we’ve done lately, and they are all so simple! I am looking forward to doing a lot more water activities with Carter, and I can’t wait for it to warm up so we can move the water activities outside for even more fun!
Super simple and fun! Just fill up the sink and add some bubbles! He loved playing with the brush I use to wash dishes and I gave him some measuring cups and funnel, too!
Be sure to roll those sleeves up!
He was super upset when sink time was over and kept trying to get me to turn the water back on! The sink was still full with water, but he wanted the water running! He loves holding his hands under running water and filling up containers with it, too!
Our next water activity was our green ice bin chase. This requires a slight amount of prep work for you to make the ice the night before, but again, super easy! I have a few different shapes of ice trays from Ikea so I made stars and dropped green food coloring into each one. I added a little bit of water for the ice to float around in, although you don’t add water or anything else if your kid likes ice!
Carter really loves playing with ice, he will run over and try to grab some out of the freezer every time I open it! So I figured he would like this activity. I wish I had dropped the ice in so he could see the water changing color, instead I did it up in the sink. Eventually this turned into a throwing the ice around the kitchen activity, so I think next time we will do it in the bathtub instead!
Our favorite water activity this week was bathtub painting! Bathtub paints are an easy DIY- I used this recipe from the blog learning4kids. It’s items you probably already have, and then main ingredient is soap, so your kid can get clean while they play! (ha!) I mixed my paint in the bottom half of my jello Easter egg mold! It was the perfect size for the paints and looks kind of like a paint tray. Next time I will mix the paint in a big batch so it’s easier to mix and then add it to each one with the food coloring.
I first had to show him what to do, because he just put the brush into each of the colors one by one, but didn’t know he was able to paint on the tub with them. And don’t worry, his diaper is on for modesty in these photos!
Warming up!
Going strong!
When the paint was almost out I started filling up the tub. He kept on painting, even when the paint was out and he was just painting with water and bubbles!
Still painting with bubbles! Clean up for this activity was very easy, I just took a washcloth and wiped down the paint while he played in the bath! Because the paint has soap, it made a nice bubble bath!
The paint didn’t stain my tub or my son! It does contain food coloring, which can stain certain materials so you might want to test it out first if you are worried!
What water play activities have you tried with your toddler?
Here is how long each of these activities held Carter’s attention:
Sink play: 30+ minutes (mommy and daddy got bored of it first!)
Green Ice Bin: 5-10 minutes (until the ice melted) Next time I will use more ice or bigger ice and/or play in the tub instead!
Bathtub Painting: 30+ minutes, including the bath time after
Stay tuned, I will be testing out more sensory, art and learning
activities and posting about them! My goal is to have one post a week
with different activities! Usually I find them on Pinterest and put my
own spin to them or modify them to fit Carter’s age and personality!
activities and posting about them! My goal is to have one post a week
with different activities! Usually I find them on Pinterest and put my
own spin to them or modify them to fit Carter’s age and personality!
This month’s super sponsor:
