Easy Ideas for Water Play with Kids

I never thought I would say this, but I kind of miss the days when my daughter was younger. Yes, it was a lot to keep her entertained through all those long summer days, but it was also fun coming up with things to do. (She’s 13 now and definitely does not want my help in deciding what to do with her time.)

One of my favorite challenges was coming up with activities we could do outside when it was hot. There was a lot of water play (and ice play!) happening, which is great because it’s easy, fun, not all that messy, and you can do it with things you already have in the house.

Sure you can build or buy a water table if you want — Blitzy has collected a bunch of DIY water tables if you want to build your own — but I always just used a plastic storage bin on the ground or on a low wall outside.

What different kinds of water play can you do? There are all sorts of easy water play activities to choose from!

You can paint with water, like in this tip from Teaching Littles. You can do this on paper as shown or you can “paint” with water outdoors on the sidewalk, on a chalkboard, or experiment with other surfaces. Or try freezing liquid watercolors and painting with the ice cubes.

One easy water play activity my daughter really liked was washing doll clothes. This requires two tubs, one for soapy water and one for clear, and ideally some clothesline and a place to set it up outdoors for clothes to dry, but it’s so easy and actually useful (because how often do you think to wash doll clothes anyway?).

Of course turning your water table/tub into a sensory bin is an easy upgrade, which can be as simple as grabbing some bath toys to the water. If you want to try something a little fancier, check out this list of more than 45 easy water sensory bin ideas collected by Happy Toddler Playtime. The car wash bin is another classic that might appeal to boys more than washing doll clothes.

Another fun and super simple addition to your water play is these sponge balls, which we made years ago from this idea at Natural Beach Living. You can buy sponges at the dollar store and have lots of fun for your water play without spending a lot of money. We used these in sensory bins and in the kiddie pool when we had one. And of course they’re great for water fights, too!

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Activities to Celebrate Ice Cream Month

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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