Getting our children into the bath can be quite the challenge. We often have to entice them or incentivize bath time with rewards and treats, but there are plenty of other solutions to our bath time challenge. Consider these creative options that are sure to help your child have fun in the bathtub.
1. Arrange a Color Bath
When you make bathtime an event with your child’s favorite color, they are sure to have fun in the bathtub! If your little one loves blue, have them scoop up blue items that are safe and water friendly around the house. Add two drops of blue food coloring a full bath tub, and let them enjoy this colorful experience. Since the food dye is heavily diluted in a bathtub full of water, there should not be any issues with the food dye coloring your child’s skin. Remember, two drops should be enough. If you do not prefer to incorporate the food dye, making it a blue bath event with blue toys will certainly make bath time fun as well!
2. DIY Repurposed Bath Toys
By taking items you already own and repurposing them for fun in the bathtub, you’re saving money and making your little ones happy! Make it rain by poking holes into the cap of an empty water gallon. Sprinkle it over your child and let them enjoy the gentle rainfall. Cut up some extra sponges and create your own sponge ball - the perfect water-friendly toy for all ages! Not sure what to do with last summer’s pool noodles? Chop them up and create quiet, floating water blocks. Your child can play with these blocks inside and outside of the bathtub. Stack them, string them, organize them - they’re a fun and gentle alternative to harder materials.
3. Try Suction Cup Toys
The tiled walls of a bathroom are a perfect place to play with suction cup toys. HABA’s Bathtub Ball Track Set suctions right to the wall and provides your child a fun way to play with water, creating their own path down the wall. Other suction cup toys can provide additional bath time fun, allowing your child to arrange, rearrange, and admire their impromptu wall art. The suction cups can also help teach your child a bit about physics - bonus!
4. Make Shaving Cream Bath Paint
For a simple and affordable DIY activity that is fun for the entire family, put shaving cream in muffin tins or plastic containers and squirt each with liquid food coloring. One muffin tin cavity can be red, the other can be purple, the other blue, and so on! Mix with a toothpick or plastic spoon and get painting! Liquid food color works best because it does not generally stain bathtub walls, bathroom surfaces, or your child’s skin. Children can paint using their fingers or brushes. Once the tub is drained, rinse quickly with warm or hot water to ensure that all the food dye is washed away. That’s colorful fun in the bathtub!
5. Take a Glow Stick Bath
Throw some glow sticks into the bath and turn out the lights! You can purchase a bag of 40 glow sticks at major retailers. As you would during any normal bath time, supervise your child and be sure that little ones do not eat the glow sticks. These bright, neon colors come to life when the lights are dimmed, adding plenty of fun in the bathtub!
6. Swim with Pom Poms
Add a bag of fuzzy, brightly colored pom poms and let your little one fish around! Incorporate some cups, spoons, and strainers for them to collect the pom poms. Pom poms are small in size, so while you supervise your child during any regular bath time, make sure that they do not eat the pom poms to avoid choking.
7. Build Your Own Fun
Add some waterproof building blocks to your child’s bath time. If your child has fun building blocks, they’re sure to have fun playing with them in the bathtub as well. While your child bathes, they can construct a house, castle, car, tower, and more. Make it a sorting game and have them arrange blocks by color in different cups using a spoon. Bath time fun can be educational too - become an underwater architect and construct a water wonderland with building blocks.
8. Plastic Egg Bath
Not sure what to do with those leftover plastic Easter eggs? If you incorporate them into your little one’s bath time, they can practice opening and closing the eggs, improving fine motor skills. They can fill them and shake them when full of water. Add some spoons to the bathtub and they can practice scooping the eggs.
Have Fun in the Bathtub!
No more bathtime struggles! With these activities, your little one will certainly look forward to scrubbing up and getting squeaky clean, having bath time fun in the process. In no time, your child will ask for bathtime rather than challenge it!
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