Kids' Bath Time Activities

Bath time! Believe it or not, there are some parents who don't look forward to their kids bath time. Poor, misguided souls, they don't realize that it's a time of fun, when small children and their parents get to play together, and when older children can get squeaky clean by spending a lot of time in the tub while playing.

Here are a few ideas for increasing bathtub fun, ones that will make your son's or daughter's cleanliness quotient rise at the same time.

SAFETY

To begin with, a few words about safety are appropriate. Small children should never be left alone in the tub; a couple of inches of water can drown an unattended toddler. If the telephone rings and you need to answer it, always take your child out of the tub and out of the bathroom with you. Even as your child gets older, it's better to be right there, perhaps with a book to read while your child plays. He or she won't mind-and will probably want you to join in the play anyway.

QUICK TUB TOYS

Water itself is a marvelous play medium, suited to activities like splashing (which comes naturally!), pouring, and bubbles. If you are wise, you won't plan on keeping fully dry, but will simply surrender to being a part of the play.

Bring in some plastic jars and cereal bowls. They're great for pouring water back and forth, and the bowls will float upright until filled and sunk. Clean peanut butter jars with the labels removed also work out well.

Empty plastic dishwashing liquid containers (the ones for washing dishes by hand, not machine), well washed out, are good for pouring, and the cap makes them good for squirting with as well. Hang a washcloth from the soap tray-on the wall side of the tub to contain the water -to serve as a target to aim for.

A number of children don't like having their hair rinsed, so these implements can turn this part of the bath into a game. Have your child crane his or her face up to look at the ceiling, hold a rolled-up, wrung-out wet washcloth across his or her forehead to keep water from running into the eyes, and use one of the bath bowls or jars to pour water over the hair so that it will all run off to the back. You can even squirt the shampoo suds away with this method to make it more like play.

A FLEET FOR THE TUB

Bath time calls for boats, preferably a whole fleet of them! You can buy inexpensive plastic boats in the toy section of the local 5 & 10, or you can easily make some at home at no cost.

Just as the cereal bowls float, so will other containers, many of them already vaguely boat-shaped. A rinsed-out milk carton with one side cut away becomes an open barge, complete down to the pointed bow. And a relatively new candidate for bath boat has appeared in the last few years, as hams increasingly come packaged in white plastic containers rather than metal cans. There are no sharp edges to worry about, and they are big enough to be loaded with other toys, action figures, etc. Styrofoam food trays also work well.

A few decades back, people were more likely to make toys from household objects than they are now. It's too bad that so many people have missed out on the fun and the admiration that comes when a child sees a parent "magically" produce something fun and interesting out of found materials-but there's no reason that you can't make some classic tub boats yourself.

The Ivory soap sailing ship is one such vessel. Ivory floats, so a new cake of Ivory can be festooned with a couple of toothpick masts bearing square sails cut from writing paper. The wind is provided by the young bather.

Even walnut shells will make little sailboats. The same mast and sails as above can be used needing only a tiny dollop of modeling clay in the bottom to hold the mast upright and in place.

Possibly the ultimate in old-time bath boats is the cork pirate ship. Now, corks are great toys and should be saved whenever you find one, and this is a creative way to put them to use. Cut away a little cork at one end to form the bow, trim some on what is now the uppermost side to form the main deck, and add toothpick masts and paper sails.

To make the cork ship float upright, you will need a keel, and that will cost you-exactly one cent! Cut a slit in the bottom and force the edge of a penny into it, and you have a stable sea-going craft fit for the Spanish Main-or the bathtub.

Try a few of these ideas. You may find, as we did, that bath time is one of the truly enjoyable parent-and-child parts of your day!

Article provided by Homesteader