Bath Time Activities

Tired of the same old rubber duckie for bath time? Try out these W approved bath time activities.

Shaving Cream Bathtub Paint
I mixed shaving cream with food coloring and then put all of the different colors in a cupcake tin, grabbed a few different paint brushes and headed upstairs to W's bathroom for bath time fun. W painted the bathtub, his belly and my hands. We talked about the different colors, how it smelled and how it tasted (of course, he had to taste it!).

Balloons
I blew up some different colored balloons and put them into the bath with W. At first, he was not sure what to think. He had played with balloons a few months ago on his father's birthday, but I wasn't sure if he remembered. He eventually warmed up and was splashing around the tub, playing with the balloons. Pretty basic, but still fun.

Glow Sticks
Glow sticks in the bathtub? Bath time in the dark? W was confused too. I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while holding a glow stick.

Bubbles
The Dollar Tree has scented bubbles that smell amazing. I blew the bubbles until I felt like I was going to pass out. I had his attention the entire bath!

Colored Bath Water
I've started introducing colors to W. I figured bath time was a perfect way to make this fun. I put a few drops of food coloring into the bath water and then added matching colored toys. Each night, I did a different color. I grabbed any toys that wouldn't ruin in the water...balls, blocks, cars etc.

Sensory Bottles

I am a recycling maniac...almost to the point of OCD. Seriously, our neighbors probably hate us on recycling day. I had a ton of empty water bottles and diet coke bottles, so I decided to put them to use. First, W and I had to take a trip to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, to pick up some crafty things to put in the bottles.

Sensory Bottle Ideas

• Different colored beads
• Jingle bells
• Feathers
• Pompoms- large, small, all different colors
• Pipe cleaners
• Water with a few drops of food coloring (you could also add baby oil or dish soap)
• Rice
• Noodles

It's been a few months since we made these and W still plays with them. He actually prefers them over his expensive toys. He carries the bottle with beads in one hand and the bottle with jingle bells in the other, around the house. I've been thinking about making new sensory bottles using mason jars. Does anyone have any sensory bottle ideas? Any thoughts on my mason jar idea?

Still playing catch up. More posts to come. If anyone is actually reading this, I hope that they are enjoying my posts and getting some ideas to do with your own little one.

Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

I've been waiting to introduce a sensory bin to W until he was older because most of the blog posts I have seen, are for older kids. But why wait? I decided to make something simple and keep a close eye on him while he explored. Super colorful rice sounded like a perfect idea for his first sensory bin.

What You Will Need:

• Rice
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Food Coloring
• Mason Jar or Baggie
• Foil
• Cookie Sheets

How to Color Rice:

Put 1 cup of rice, 2 tbsp of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring in a baggie. Then mix it up. Line your cookie sheets with foil and dump the rice out onto the foil to dry. Easy peasy lemon squeezey! After the rice had dried, I dumped it into a container forming a rainbow. It was beautiful!

I set up the rainbow rice sensory bin on the floor with measuring cups, then I bought in W. He stared at the rice for a few minutes, we talked about the different colors and how it looked like a rainbow. Then, in went his hands...it all happened so fast. Before I knew it, there was rice EVERYWHERE! He was so excited, he was throwing handfuls of rice on the floor then crawling through it. I talked to him about how the rice felt and how it sounded as it fell onto the floor. We put rice into the measuring cup and then dumped it out. This entertained him for about a half an hour, which is a long time (he didn't even try to put any in his mouth!). I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures to share but this kid moves fast!

All in all, the sensory bin worked out great. I'm so excited to make another. Maybe colored noodles?

Exploring the Kitchen

Sometimes I think that I'm just a tad bit too overprotective with all of my baby gates, locks, plugs and padding. So, I've started letting W do more exploring around the house (of course with my very close supervision). 

I was putting away the dishes and let W help. He discovered that the bottom rack could roll. We talked about how it was like a car. After, He got the rack out of the dishwasher, he rolled it into the living room. He crawled back, pushing the rack, ready to explore the rest of the dishwasher.

W was very excited when he realized that the baby lock wasn't on the cabinet. He pulled most of the pots and pans out and started banging them on the floor. We did some singing and dancing while banging the pots on the floor.

W is currently taking a baby tumbling class and this has definitely nurtured his climbing abilities. He pushed the paper towels over to the counter then proceeded to climb up. I could not believe my eyes! He was so proud of himself.

Cardboard Box Town

It seems that W's favorite toys are homemade, which is AWESOME!!!!! We recently got a wine cabinet and were going to have this huge box laying around until I was able to go to the recycling center, so I decided we better to something fun with it! While W was napping I cut the box so it would lay flat, made a road and collected markers and crayons. Once W decided to wake up, we got down to business.

I drew the everyday places that we go... Home, Park, Zoo, Beach, Grandma and PopPop's etc.

W did some coloring and some crayon eating. Boy, I sure do hope these teeth come in soon but he is gnawing on everything in sight!

I'll admit it... I HAD A BLAST DOING THIS ACTIVITY!

After, we finished drawing and coloring our town, we broke out the cars. We drove the cars on the road talking about what we saw. (I even drew animals so, we were able to practice our animal noises). We sang "The wheels on the bus" ALOT. W loves that song.

If you have a box laying around, I highly recommend doing this! 

Foil Painting

I've recently become obcessed with Pinterest (which is easy to do). There are so many great ideas for kids crafts and activities. I've also started following Play At Home Mom's blog, they have a ton of great "invitations" for kids of all ages. I love their ideas!!

W has been trying to eat everything...even if it's not food. I've been told that's normal? So, I decided to make an edible finger paint just to be on the safe side, even though I normally use a non-toxic finger paint.

Flour Finger Paint
2 cups of flour
5 cups of water
1/4 cup of salt
Food coloring

Mix the flour and water together in a saucepan over low heat until smooth. Then, mix in the salt and let the paint mixture cool. I divided the paint into 4 cups then added food coloring to make red, blue, green and yellow paint.

Now, to set up the activity for W. I put foil on his high chair tray, put the cups of paint on the tray then set 4 paint brushes alongside the paint. Time to get messy.

Smiling ear to ear. Very excited for art.

I'm so happy that I put the different color paints in cups. He had so much fun dumping each out. Normally, I put the paint directly on the paper.

He's fast! In the blink of an eye, he had dumped the paint out!

We talked about the shiny foil, different colors of the paint, how the paint felt and of course how it tasted. I tried to emphasize "eww, paint is yucky" but W kept trying to convince me otherwise. 

Saying "mmmm"

Lots of mess = Lots of fun

FYI: I wasn't too happy with this recipe for the flour paint...it was very watery. I even tried to thicken it up with more flour, but I ran out of time because W woke up from his nap. But I will experiment with other recipes and post all about it.

Playing catch up

Wow, it has been a long time since I have last posted! W will be 10 months old tomorrow. He babbles, is starting to walk and is learning something new each day. Time flies! Now, it's time to play catch up on the activites we have been doing.