While I don’t usually bring activities along on vacation with us, I knew a classic tin foil boat float would be an awesome way for Miss G and I to spend one of Sam’s nap times {not to mention that it’s a pretty perfect fit given the fact that we’re staying directly across from the water} and boy, was I ever right.
Water play… It’s a summer staple and something that’s enjoyed by kiddos of all ages. The best part is that most of the time, water play activities are incredibly easy to set-up, because let’s face it – you give most munchkins a bin of water to splash around in and they’re happy. That being said, with a few extra supplies, you can take water play to a whole new level.
This afternoon, with Brad outside mowing the lawn and Miss G being his water / sweat rag girl {hah!!}, I thought Sam and I would try something fun while doing our daily tummy time play. Since our tummy time painting was a hit a few days ago, I figured we’d give a sensory bag a go this time around. My initial thought was to create a quick and easy bag that was clear gel or shampoo based, but we had neither on hand… so water it was!
Okay, so I’m fairly certain we’ve gone off the deep end with this LEGO minifigure mini bath station, but hey – Miss G loved it. In fact, she thought it was the cutest, silliest, most fun thing ever! Win.
Gracen and I are lucky enough to have one of her little friends join us for an afternoon of play each Wednesday. They play quite well together, so I put a few things out for them to explore in advance, then step back to let them play, helping communication and sharing happen when needed. We always have a good time together, but the last couple of times I’ve noticed that together they plow through the activities I’ve set out (2 minutes of play dough! 1 stroke of paint! 3 minutes of water play!) and then look at me with eager eyes for something more.
Today as Miss G was napping, I decided I’d set out a fun station for her to discover and explore throughout the afternoon. All I knew is that I wanted it to be something simple to prepare (so much to do!), but that’s all I had. As I thought back through previous activities that Gracen loved, I remembered her magnetic station from long ago. That thing literally stayed around for months and months and got tons of play even near the end of its run. That’s when the idea of a sink or float discovery station came to mind. Water is the simplest sensory material ever, and all it would require would be for me to collect things from around the house.
When we went to pick up a pool noodle for Gracen’s marble run water slide, she originally fell in love with a flower-shaped noodle. While I knew it wouldn’t be the best fit for our marble run, at $1.25, I knew we would eventually figure out a way to put it to good use.
It was my first time seeing this sort of pool noodle, and all I knew was that I wanted to slice it up to create tons of little individual flower shapes.
So that’s just what I did. Just like when slicing a pool noodle in half vertically, I found that using a sharp, serrated knife and a sawing motion worked best. I sliced ours about an inch thick, but you could do them any thickness you like – even varying thicknesses would be fun!
As I chopped, Miss G ran the ready flowers over to her blow up pool and tossed them in!
It’s such a simple thing, but they looked so pretty and inviting dancing around on the water’s surface. (I’m already picturing them in bath tubs and sensory bins too!)
I think Miss G agreed, because she immediately jumped in {despite the freezing cold water} and started splashing around like mad!
When the splashing had subsided a little bit, Grandma Charlotte showed Grae how the flowers could be used as building blocks.
It’s definitely easier in still-ish water, but it’s equally fun when in or out of the pool. Towers can be built…
Pyramids can be built…
And ‘trains’ can be built too! Of course, the possibilities are really endless when it comes to building structures – even when they’re floating ones.
Now the only question is how I’m going to convince Brad that heaps of pool noodle flowers are a Kuwait necessity… I mean with the heat and the amount of time we spend in and around water there, they are, aren’t they? ☺
I forgot how trying and time consuming this whole Kuwait documentation process is… We’re currently in the throws of police clearances, medical tests, notarizations, and phone calls, which isn’t all that fun. Add in a very busy, wanting-to-be-on-the-go toddler, and it’s that much more difficult. Today, between Embassy calls and trips to the police station and medical lab, I pulled out one of my favourite tried and true ways to keep Miss G happily engaged while we got a few things done – a sink full of water. It’s a super simple invitation to play and is a hit every single time. Today it involved a couple of drops of blue/green food colouring, a couple of rocks, some glass gems, and a bowl of plastic creepy crawlies. That’s it. We set it up together, she pulled her little Ikea stool up to the bathroom sink, and the play began.
The best part is that it’s not at all limited to a bug swamp. In fact, the possibilities are endless! Here are a few of our favourite sink play ideas…
1. Baby bath – Grab a plastic doll, a wash cloth and/or sponge, some watered down shampoo or bubble bath,and a small towel and the baby doll will be cleaner than ever. For extra fun, add in a toothbrush and hairbrush for when bath time is done.
2. Ocean – Add a couple of drops of blue food colouring to the water, then add some rocks, seashells, driftwood pieces and plastic ocean creatures. Instant fun!
3. Floating building station – Place several pool noodle pieces (sliced about an inch thick) in the sink and let your little one experiment with building floating structures – towers, pyramids, ‘trains’ – anything goes!
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Oh my goodness. Miss G and I had so much fun with this little project this afternoon. The best part is that it was completely impromptu. She wanted ‘to craft’ as she always says, and when digging through our craft supply drawer, came across a little bag of corks we scored at our last trip to Urban Source. I had boat building in mind ever since we picked them out, and when I suggested it to her, she was fully game. Together, we did a little Pinterest search, and Grae selected the images from these three posts for inspiration.
With an idea in mind, it was time to gather up some materials. The corks were a given, the elastics would hold the actual boat together, the toothpicks or dowels would hold up our sails (we went with the mini dowels in the end), and the nail would help us poke our holes. The last thing we needed was something to make our sails out of… We thought of patterned scrapbook paper, but knew that would eventually just get wet. We also thought of the plastic sheets we used to make our window clings, but Grae wasn’t overly excited about the colours we had left. Then we thought of foam sheets – being waterproof and super lightweight, they’d be perfect. And even more perfect? Finding sparkly ones! Gracen was sold.
To get started, Gracen lined up 3 corks and held them together while I secured them with 2 thick elastic bands – one on each side.
Then, using our nail and “our big, big muscles” in the words of Grae, we created a little hole in the very centre of the cork wharf.
Together we pushed our mini wooden dowel down into the hole (a food pick or bamboo skewer could work too).
Using another mini dowel for reference, sketched a quick sail outline on the back of our sparkly foam.
Because our foam was of the adhesive variety, we made our sail double-sided, but this would be unnecessary if we had just regular foam sheets.
After making a couple of teeny little slits in our sail, one at the top and one at the bottom, we slid it onto our dowel post.
The finishing touch was adding a little flag above our sail. To do this, Gracen selected a roll of washi tape and folded a piece in half around the top of our dowel. Then I cut it to form a flag shape.
With our first boat complete, it was time for the big moment – to see whether or not it would float. It did!
And this little lady was very pleased about that.
We made one more boat, and the play begun immediately. Bobbing, blowing, and swooshing ensued throughout the afternoon and I’m sure it’ll continue for the next several days.
And while the boats have been fun in a bowl of water, I have a couple of other ideas to make them even more fun to play with. Now where to find more corks…
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Ever since the very first time we played with water beads, I’ve had a pretend play bubble tea station on my mind. I just can’t help it… It may be that we live in a city that has a bubble tea shop every couple of blocks, but the squishy, shiny beads make me think of tapioca pearls every time I see them.
Finally, almost a year after dreaming up the idea, my wee one and I put together our first pretend bubble tea shop. And it couldn’t have been better timing as Miss G is really into pretend play (in particular, store games where an exchange of some sort takes place) right now.
While I often set up invitations to play or create while she’s sleeping, this time around Gracen helped me. Together, we gathered up a few things we had around the house and a couple of inexpensive things we purchased especially for this activity. Included in the set-up were some tall plastic cups, a few containers of water beads with small scoops (our tapioca pearls), a couple of small pitchers of coloured water (our tea / fruit juice), a small spouted container of water coloured white with cornstarch (our condensed milk), and a jar full of colourful bubble tea straws (purchased at our local Japanese dollar store). Though I really don’t mind a mess in the name of great play, I also included tray on the pouring area of the table to catch little spills and prevent a slippery wooden floor.
To complete the set-up, we popped over to the computer to create a quick shop sign. I told her how to spell ‘bubble tea’ and Miss G carefully located and pressed each key, which was a fun activity in itself. Afterwards, I selected a good, bold outline font and she chose the image and the drink price. We printed it off, coloured it together, and used some washi tape to hang it on the wall.
With our shop complete, it was time to get down to business and Gracen couldn’t have been more excited. While she’s never tried bubble tea herself, she’s seen people walking down the street with it plenty, so she had a very good idea of what she wanted to do.
At this point I should say that Miss G is well out of the putting things in her mouth stage and because she is such a rule follower, I was not worried in the least that she would attempt to drink her creations (she wouldn’t even consider it). Of course, if you suspect that your little one would be tempted to drink the pretend bubble tea or if you’re unable to supervise the play the entire time, this activity is not for you as water beads are {obviously} not edible.
I invited her to get started without giving her any instructions (as I usually do), and this is how she put together her creation… Pearls first, then juice, then a straw and some milk – a pretty solid method I’d say!
She made drink after drink, each time talking about the person she was making for. This particular one was for Grandma Sue because Grandma Sue loves pink and therefore she’d pick pink pearls and pink juice. The process went on and on until she could no longer think of another person she knew. Then it was on to making them for people’s pets!
Here are a few of her bubble tea creations. Pretty, aren’t they?
Because the station was such a hit, I set up a bowl with a strainer in it so she could pour out her drinks and refill her containers when she’d run out of supplies (well, she was in charge of refilling her water bead containers and I poured the water from the bowl back into the pitchers). This allowed the fun to continue on and on without having to waste water or make trips back and forth to the kitchen.
Gracen enjoyed this activity so much that it stayed out for nearly a week, getting lots of action each day. We’ll definitely be doing it again in the near future, and while it was great inside, I can’t wait to set it up outside in the backyard on a warm day too!
Again, water beads are not edible and should never be consumed. This activity should always be supervised and is not intended for munchkins prone to tasting play materials or putting things in their mouths.
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This afternoon while walking along the river, Gracen noticed a man sitting down on the rocks fishing and was fascinated. The questions started rolling in and once we’d lost sight of him, all she wanted to know was when we’d see him again. Luckily, on our way back we found him just where we’d left him. Phew.
With a new interest in fishing and a stick worthy of taking home found along the way, this post from Mini-Eco immediately came to mind. I asked Miss G if she was interested in doing some indoor fishing when we got home, and she was more than game.
Grae and I rounded up a few things… Some plasticky sheets purchased on our last trip to Urban Source, a hole punch, and a handful of paperclips.
I cut out the fish shapes, and Grae helped punch holes and feed the paper clips through.
Next, Grae chose some baker’s twine from my collection. We tied one end to her beloved stick, and used a dab of hot glue to attach the other end to a round magnet (though if you had a u-shaped magnet, you could just tie it on).
Next, we got out a big bowl, filled it with water, added a drop of blue food colouring just for fun. Gently, we set the fish on the surface of the water.
Then it was time to fish!
Gracen held her rod steady, gently lowered into the bowl overtop of the fish of her choosing, and proudly lifted up fish after fish.
She was pretty pleased with herself.
And after a whole lot of fishing, some messy water play was inevitable. ☺
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On the way home from a little mama/daughter photo shoot today, Gracen asked if we could build a duck pond. I’m not sure where how or why this request came about, but I was as game as she was.
It’s been a while since we’ve put together a new sensory bin and what I loved this time around was that instead of me putting something together for her to explore and investigate, we created this one together. Very similar to a frog pond sensory bin we’ve played with before, our duck pond sensory bin included glass beads in blues and greens, rocks, driftwood, some flowered branches from the yard, and a couple of toy ducks we already had on hand.
In order to make it outdoor-friendly, the pond’s water was nice and warm.
So warm apparently that Miss G didn’t mind getting her entire body soaking wet.
Grae played for a little while before moving onto more exciting things with Grandma Charlotte, but I know she’ll get lots more play out of it once the excitement level gets back to normal around here.
♥
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Since returning home from a long vacation 2 weeks ago, playing independently has been a lot more difficult for Grae. Instead of playing on her own, she wants to be right beside Mama {if not right on top of me} all. of. the. time. When I explain that I need a little bit of personal space to get something done or encourage her to play, she responds with, “But Mama is the best…” or “But I just want to watch what you’re doing” or “But I LOOOOVE you!” Oy. It’s not easy.
The one time she seems to be happy to play on her own right now is while I make dinner (thank goodness for that). She often does puzzles, reads, or plays dress up, but tonight she set up one of her long time favourite games… A sink bath for her animal friends. She pulls up a stool, collects her sea creatures (sometimes it’s a baby or rubber ducks), and grabs a wash cloth while I fill up the sink with warm water, get out a squirt bottle or a sponge, and retrieve some soap or a little chunk of FUN. Together we add a drop or two of food colouring to the water, and that’s it. She plays and splashes and washes her animals in there for a good long time, and by the time she’s done, I usually have dinner on the table.
A sink full of water… Who knew? Works like magic every time.
♥
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After our most recent tea party with a pot filled with “tea”, I realized that I haven’t really given Gracen many opportunities to practice her pouring skills (with the exception of cooking and sensory bin/bath tub play, I guess). So tonight, just before I began making dinner, I set up a little water pouring station for her. All it took was a towel on the floor, a plastic serving tray, some measuring cups/jars/pitchers, and some coloured water. Gracen was thrilled, of course.
She transferred water from one container to another, watching the colours change and muddle for the better part of an hour, which was the perfect amount of time for me to prep dinner, clean the kitchen and wash a big load of dishes. Doesn’t get much better than that. Afterwards, clean up was a breeze. The towel went into the wash, the dishes got rinsed, and that was that… Another ‘Mama needs to make dinner’ activity to add to my {mental} list. ☺
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If you don’t feel comfortable letting your little one handle glass jars and measuring cups, you could always replace them with plastic ones instead. Switching out the water for dry goods like lentils, beans, and popping corn would be fun too!
Okay, so I know that we are very likely the last ever play-lovin’ people to jump aboard the water bead train, but we’ve finally done it. And they’re awesome.
The truth is, while I’ve known that they could be purchased online, I was hoping to just ‘bump’ into them one day while doing some shopping. I know this is ridiculous, but I’ve had my eyes peeled for months while at children’s stores and teaching stores, but of course I’ve had no luck finding them in those places… Am I the only person on the face of the planet that did not know what water beads were actually intended for?! Here I was, thinking that they were some sort of revolutionary sensory-based material designed especially for play, when they are actually intended for using in flower vases and readily available at florists and in the floral sections of craft and dollar stores. Duh! My bad…
That is until we were picking up a couple of lily-esque flowers for a pond sensory bin in our local dollar store the other day… Sure enough, there they were. Squishy, shiny, smooth marbles packed in small containers of water. Non-toxic and environmentally safe. Score! I may have been a little overly excited given the situation… But hey, what can I say?
We first used them during our recent messy play date and today we took them outside again in a simple water bead sensory bin. Miss G requested the water beads be in pink water, so pink water it was. We gathered up a few kitchen goodies (a slotted spoon is a must) and headed outside.
The coolest thing is that because these particular beads are clear, they’re nearly invisible when in water (especially in non-coloured water).
Then you put your hands in the bin expecting just water and discover a squishy, slippery surprise. (Of course, Gracen already knew what to expect, but apparently it still felt wonderful enough to get elbow deep in the bin.)
Catching them while in water can be a little tricky, but it’s a big part of the fun.
That’s where a slotted spoon comes in handy (especially one of this size). Grae quickly realized how much easier it made collecting her bouncy water beads and got to work filling up her tray.
Of course, what fun is a sensory bin without squishing your toes in it?
A few things to keep in mind about water beads… Firstly, though they’re non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally safe, they {obviously} should not be ingested. Also, from what I’ve read, they clog drains quite badly, so if you set up a water bead station in your bath tub or sink, be sure to use one of those mesh drain inserts to make sure none of them slip down into your pipes. Lastly, they will dehydrate over time if left out of water. Either store them in a sealed container with a little bit of water, or if they do dry out, simply soak them in water for 8 to 12 hours to rehydrate them.
I have a feeling there’s a lot of water bead fun in our future… Brad and I picked up several packages of the dehydrated kind while on a little date night to the Summer Night Market last week, so we’ve got a stock pile of red, purple, pink, aqua, and multicoloured ones ready to go. I’ve already got a million ways to use them floating around in my head… How fun would setting up a bubble tea station be? Or putting them into a big container of thick shaving foam? What about mixing them up with glow sticks and playing with them in the dark or creating a Halloween sensory bin filled with water beads, slime, and creepy crawlies? I feel a Pinterest visit coming on very soon… ☺
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