With bath time usually signalling bedtime, it’s no surprise that some children are a bit reluctant to scrub off the day’s grime. But making bath time fun will help and children can learn something at the same time.
Read our post on how to beat the bathroom blues.
Tubes in the tub
Make bath time fun but adding some plastic bowls, cups and spaghetti drainers to the bath and children can learn about volume as they pass water from one object to the next. You can also tape up some tubes or pipes to the bathroom wall (so they flow into the bath) and let children experiment with pouring water through them. Make sure you use earth-friendly products in your tub!
Just add colour
Buy bath time crayons or colourful foam, or use watercolour paints, and let children get creative on the side of the bath. You can even make your own coloured bath paint by adding a few drops of food colouring to shaving cream. Use a muffin pan as a handy holder for different coloured shaving cream paint. Another way to experiment with colour is to make coloured ice cubes and drop these into the bath. Make blue, red and yellow, and let children discover how other colours are made.
Sponge bath
Foam and sponge cut-outs are fun for children to play with during bath time. Buy some or make your own. Younger children can play with shapes, while older children may enjoy writing words with foam letters or solving sums with sponge numbers, all the while soaking in the tub.
Sink or float
Experiment with a variety of objects and see which ones sink and which ones float. Ask children to guess what each will do, so that they learn about the concept of light and heavy. A good object to use is a pumice stone. Children are sure to say it will sink, because it is a rock. But it is made up of many tiny holes, so it holds the air and floats. It will sink eventually, but will float long enough to make children think.
Theme your bath
Help children learn about different subjects by creating a themed bath. For a farmyard bath, add plastic farm animals and a plastic beach spade. An under the sea bath could include fish, a fishing net, some green ribbon for seaweed, and bath crystals for the feel of sand. This will also work as a sensory bath, where children can touch and feel different objects.
