Sunday July 26th / Cork Bath

We got a bag of wine corks from a friend this week. I asked for them!

The first thing we did with them was add them to our bath. There were A LOT of corks. They thought this was awesome! They caught the corks in the nets, read the side of each one, looked at the pictures on them, and built cork towers on the side of the tub. It was hilarious! I also gave them straws and we had a "cork race" in the tub. This was not fair because the preschooler can blow through the straw much easier than the toddler, but it was fun. We actually have done this three days last week because they always want the corks at bath time now! :-)

Saturday June 27th / Fishing For Letters

This all started with buying those littler nets for the kids. I bought them to take to the cabin so they could catch snails, minnows, and other things in the lake. Then we got home and they wanted to bring them into the tub. Originally I was going to have them fish for our rubber ducks and fish but I decided fishing for letters woud be a better idea.

Toddler and Preschooler

You need:
Foam letters
Small nets (Mine cost 59 cents)
bath tub

Fill the tub, add letters, show your kids how to "fish" for the letters. Now ask them what they caught! Tell them all the letter names. see how many letters they already know. Literacy, water play, learning and fun all rolled into one!

Saturday June 20th / Baby Doll Bath Day

Toddler and Preschooler

This started because I was cleaning out the baby bathtub for a friend who's pregnant and ended a few hours later with a great new activity! Both kids loved it.

I loved my son telling the baby doll "Ok, we are going to wash your hair now, ready? 1 (pour water over her head) 2 (repeat) 3 (repeat). Ok baby, we're all done, that wasn't so bad was it?" I laughed really hard, Has he ever heard THAT before??

You need:
Baby bathtub or a plastic bin
PLASTIC baby doll
water
wash cloths
baby soap
cup for hair washing

Take the tub outside, fill it with water. Tell the kids they have to give the baby a bath! Give them wash cloths, soap, and anything else you use in the tub. You can show them what to do or sit back and watch to see their perception of bathtime! Your choice on the type of doll, I chose our plastic one that could get wet.

My toddler kept telling the doll, "ALL CLEAN!"

Friday June 12th Let's Get Messy / Body Painting

Toddler and Preschooler

You need:
flour
water
food coloring

We did this activity in the bathtub this week. We had small baby plastic bowls with different colors and they dipped their whole hands into them and smeared colors all over arms, legs, and tummies. It became a "paint the walls" session as well but I didn't care because it was very fun. At first we just spread it. Then when the intial excitement was over, we painted shapes and pictures. Clean up was VERY easy.

Here is a second recipe:
2 tbs solid shortening
1 tbs cornstarch
food coloring
make up sponges

Mix, add color, apply
If you want to add glitter, I am sure they would love it!

Toddler and Preschooler

You need a bucket or buckets of water and sponges. We each had our own bucket. This is an outdoor activity!

Fill the buckets and soak the sponges until they are full of water.

Demonstrate to your children how to take the sponges out of the bucket (quicker is better but it doesn't matter) and throw them.

The sponges will SPLAT! After trying this numerous times, we found the higher in the air, the bigger the SPLAT. Water goes everywhere and leaves a great water mark.

Get sponge, soak up water in the bucket, repeat as many times as you want. My personal scale is if an activity is entertaining for 15-20 minutes it is a winner or if they ask for it later. This one hit on both scales.

Extension: We added chalk circle to the driveway and tried to throw the sponges in the circles. Our toddler spent most of her time taking the sponges in and out and squeezing the water in the chalk circles then yelling, "Look it!" and laughing.

Tip: Remove shoes if they can't get wet. Learn from our mistakes. Also wear a swimsuit unless they can get their clothes wet.

Carnival Duck Game

Toddler and Preschooler:
Gather all your rubber ducks and empty squirt bottles. This can be an indoor or outdoor game.

Option one-
Fill the bathtub with a few inches of water.
Load it with floating ducks, frogs, etc.
Show your child how if you squirt the animal it moves.
Our ducks wouldn't tip, but that did not stop us from trying.
I filled the bottles when they were empty and we added food coloring.
This was entertaining to them for 45 minutes (I consider that success!)

Option 2 -outside
Fill your kiddie pool.
Same game, except provide another bucket for children to fill their own squirt bottle.
It was not warm enough this week to try this outside, but I think I would let them try the house with the attachment on it, to see if they can squirt and flip the ducks.

Tips-
I never knew an empty Heinz ketchup bottle could be so fun! Try it!!
My toddler could not squeeze the ketchup bottle but she could squeeze an empty joy dishsoap bottle.

Today we will learn about Sink and Float

Toddler:
Give them a group of bath toys and drop (plop) them in the water one by one. Be very animated as you announce wither each items "sinks" or "floats".

Preschooler:
Ask your preschooler to help you fill a small basket with household objects that you don't mind getting wet. Ask them to guess if they will sink or float in water. Explain that floating means they stay at the top of the water and sinking means they will stay at the bottom of the tub (bucket, pool, container etc) After you have gathered objects bring them into the tub.

Experiment by dropping them one by one in the water. Ask them if it sinks or floats. Do they notice anything? Do you??

Advanced: After their bath, have your child  draw a line down the middle of the paper and make a list or pictures under the headings :SINK FLOAT

Toddler and Preschooler:
Today start to collect your empty ketchup, mustard, shampoo, dishsoap, and other items for the bath tub that can squirt water. Show your child how to put it under the water and get water into the bottle and then lift it out of the water and squeeze! They can also go into the kiddkie pool, or lake this summer too. If you want to make this even more exciting then keep clear plastic containers so your children can watch the water go in and out of the container! If you do not want your bathroom soaked, be sure to show your child (BEFORE YOU START) where they can squirt, and where they can not. If you are outside, be prepared to get wet!