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This blog is here for you to find fun learning activities to do with your children. We share great ideas we find and love on the Internet, as well as ideas we come up with on our own! We also like to share resources we find helpful.

To find ideas for your child, click on the age range blog label or on the theme/topic you are looking for (on the left side of the page). In each post, we try to list optimal age ranges for the activity, but you must judge for yourself if it is appropriate for your child. When you try an activity out, please comment and let us (and everyone else) know how your child liked it!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Surviving Winter: Bath Play


Last summer, we ran a popular series on simple summer fun ideas. I live in a very wintery climate and have had questions both from friends here and from readers on one of my other blogs on how to entertain children during a long winter. So I will be doing a Surviving Winter series this winter! Hurray for surviving winter!

We can easily have snow on the ground from October until May. Last "winter," we ditched the snow around the end of March/beginning of April, but it literally rained and rained and rained until Father's Day (which is odd for us because we live in a desert climate). So we can get a little house-bound and need to come up with ideas for keeping our children (and therefore ourselves) sane.

First up...Bath Play!

At my house, bath time has ALWAYS been just another playtime. This is true year round. A couple of months ago, my neighbor asked me for ideas to keep her almost four year old occupied in the day. He is the fourth child in their family, and his older brothers are all at school. I listed off things I do with Kaitlyn, and playing in the tub stuck out to her. She started doing that with her son each day and says he LOVES it. He loves to play in the tub and will stay occupied for a long time.

My kids also love the bath. The bathtub is one giant water play activity. You can easily get at least 30 minutes out of a bath. Oftentimes, I have to force my kids out after an hour! 

So what do you play with in the tub? Anything you would use with water play and more. We have several posts on water play on this blog. Here are some ideas:
  • Bubbles
  • Spoons/measuring spoons
  • Cups of various sizes
  • Pitchers
  • Measuring cups
  • Washcloth (my kids like to wipe the walls)
  • Squirt bottle
  • Goggles 
  • Paint brushes
  • Tub Painting
There are also a whole lot of bath toys out there!
And what about you? What will you do during this loooong bath play each day? Here are a few ideas:
  • Play with the kids
  • Sneak extra learning in there (like with the alphabet letters--"What sound does A say?"
  • Sit and quietly read a book. This is very relaxing! It is nice and warm and humid! 
  • Clean the bathroom
  • Call a friend if you can still focus on the kids
  • Take pictures--enjoy these sweet moments
  • Get ready for the day
  • Sit and do nothing! How fun does that sound?

10 comments:

lodestar said...

I so enjoy your blog and your babywise chronicles blog. For a month now, when i google your chronicles blog it says "link broken" and I cant get onto the site. Any idea what I can do

Fiona said...

Hi there! I look forward to reading these posts! I live in England so obviously it is contantly cold and wet here so need lots of indoor ideas!

Valerie Plowman said...

lodestar,

I am not sure why it would be doing that--it works when I google it. But here is the exact addy:

www.babywisemom.com

That will get you there!

Valerie Plowman said...

I hope I can help out Fiona!

Mommy Sarah said...

how fun! never thought of letting my kids play so long in the bath, I should try that! They will have a lot of fun! We also blow bubbles in the bath, they love it!

lodestar said...

Hi there! Unfortunately typing in the internet address doesnt work either. I will just have to keep on enjoying the learning blog! Will miss reading the Chronicles blog tho.

Would it be possible for you to send me the details of the other babywise groups as I cant get them off the chronicles site anymore. Maybe those will work for me. Thanx for all the great ideas... looking forward to those winter ones, as its pretty cold!

Kristy Powers said...

Going to do this today or tomorrow! I have to admit it's nice here today but we've already been outside. I think I will have to bookmark these for summer play ideas since that is heat stroke and hurricane season for us. :)

Kristy Powers said...

So I did this today with my toddler. At first I just gave him a small sponge and bowl after showing him how I picked up water with the sponge and squeezed it into the bowl. He really liked that. When he got tired of that, I gave him a paintbrush for water painting. After a while, we added our bath boats. A great time!

Valerie Plowman said...

Lodestar, that is so odd. Try copy and pasting:

http://www.babywisemom.com/

and there is a babywise group on babycenter. There is also the Chronicles Google group:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/chronicles-of-a-babywise-mom

Valerie Plowman said...

So glad Kristy! I remembered the other day that when Brayden was a baby, I would get ready while he played in the tub. So there is another idea for something for you to do.

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