Category: Toddlers

Any mom will tell you: bath time can be a real mess, especially when your children don’t like it. Sometimes they want to stay up longer watching cartoons and playing games, but sometimes they just don’t like baths. As you already know, children will do pretty much anything as long as they think of it as a game, so here are a few bathtub games which will help you turn bath time into play time and still get your children clean.

Glow sticks rule

Children are afraid of the dark, but they are also fascinated by it. You can use it to your advantage and have them take a bath in semi-dark by throwing glow sticks in the water and turning off the lights. Glow sticks in water will look magical, and your children will be too mesmerized by the soft lights to be remotely afraid of the dark. You will see, their baths will last much longer than usual.

Polka dot bath

Plain old round foam circles can turn your bathroom into a polka dot playground. Just by splashing some water on the walls, your child will be able to stick and re-stick these circles as many times as they like and create different shapes. For even more fun, you can add a bit of food colouring into the water and have your children feel like they’re in a fairy tale.

PVC is great too

Use PVC pipes to make an adjustable bath toy that your child will love: use elbows and T’s pipes and attach suction cups to them. Remove hooks and clips from the suction cups and use a small drill to make holes in pipes which will be big enough for you to attach the suction cup. After that, you can stick them to the wall and let your child pour water into them to make small streams and waterfalls.

Water balloons

Adding water to water? Sounds fun! Take ordinary balloons, but don’t blow them up; instead fill them with water and throw them in the tub. If your child is bored with their toys, balloons in the tub will be a blast. You can also add food-colouring in the balloon water and encourage your child to pop them making their bathwater colourful.

Fishing for letters

This is a useful educational game which can easily be done with some plastic letters and kitchen utensils: use a ladle or a wooden spoon to fish for letters you’ve thrown in the tub. You can also try getting magnet ABC letters and a fishing pole with a magnet tied to the end and let your kid go fishing in the comfort of your own bathroom. Encourage them to make words out of letters they ‘caught’ and who knows, maybe they will read their first words in the bathroom!

Bath paint is awesome

For this easily-washable paint you will need some shaving cream, food colouring, and a muffin tin. Squirt some shaving cream in each cup of the muffin tin and add food colouring to make lovely bath paint. Let them paint all over your walls and tub with their fingers or you can give them a small brush and don’t worry, the ‘paint’ will wash off easily. It’s imperative that you keep your bath tubs safe and clean, especially as little kids still like putting everything in their mouths.

Sorting things out

The best thing about colour sorting is that you can use pretty much anything, as long as it can get wet. Fill the tub with bottle caps or plastic toys, and ask your child to sort them according to size, colour, shape, or simply in groups of three/four/five. Not only are sorting activities fun, but they are educational too: you can use this opportunity to teach your children to count and differentiate colours and shapes.

Even if baths aren’t a struggle for you and your children, making the experience a bit more fun and educational can go a long way. Use this opportunity to play with your children, encourage them to use their imagination, and teach them something new. This way, you will have children who look forward to bath time every night, and not run away when you mention it.