Sink Fun: It Works For Me!
>> Tuesday, January 29, 2008 –
Frugal Ideas,
Kids,
Quick Tips
Yet another tip from me this week about entertaining the kiddos on the cheap! I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I'm sure it's been around since the beginning of water, kids, and sinks...so I guess you could consider this more of a reminder.
There is just nothing that entertains my children more than water. For my older kids, I let them fill up the sink and choose their toys from my kitchen utensil drawer. For my smaller ones, I do those things for them. However they get there though, they just love playing in the water! They scoop, they pour, they "measure", they experiment. And of course, they get to wipe down the bathroom with towels when they're done.
For a little extra fun, add some soap or bubble bath to the water. Or let them use a bar of soap to see how slippery it gets. Ice cubes would be fun too. You can also challenge them to a game of "sink or float"- choose a few things from around the house, have the kids guess if the items will sink or float, and then let them find out for themselves.
Sink fun keeps them busy for a good hour. It's cheap. It's educational (sorta). It's not too messy. But most importantly, IT'S NOT TV!
Thanks so much for stopping by! For lots of other great tips and ideas, go visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.
Yes this works with my son too!
My kids love that too. Great tip.
You got it right: IT'S NOT TV!! Yea!
Love this! I am SO trying it today.
This is a great idea! I do this with my daughter, but use the bathtub. It doesn't get as messy. She kneels over the side and has tons of fun. I've also let her get in with her bathing suit on. It makes it different than a bath (which she loves, too), so it's just play time.
On one of our bad-weather days, I made an indoor carnival for her. One of the events was a rubber duck game in the bathtub. I used one of those color tablets to color the water and then put stickers on the bottom of each rubber duck and let them float in the bathtub. She used one of her tickets to play the game, where she chose one and whatever sticker was on the bottom corresponded to a certain prize. It was exactly like a carnival. She loved it!
Wonderful idea. I use to do that with my kids too. I even put plastic cups in there so they could pretend to wash dishes. To bad they don't like doing it when they get older.
Jillian
It is TOTALLY educational to let them play with water - using the sink with different colored tablets, textures, items to guess if they sink or not - it's like having your very own sensory table at home. They're 'learning' math, science and logic. Good work!
We love this too! They also like a bin of rice and beans (or sand) to scoop and pour and play with. Put a sheet under it to make clean up easier. This is better than a sensory table in some ways -- we have a plastic one that got moved outdoors because it's easier to clean up and empty water outdoors. While a sink can just be unplugged indoors.