Water Play to do with Your Toddler Right Now

Don’t-Miss Water Fun for Playing with Toddlers:

Parents agree that water play is an essential thing to do with toddlers.  Grab this handful of supplies and head out to the patio to with your toddler today.  Go! Right now!  It’s warm and sunny and so easy to delight your little one.

I bet you have all these things on hand:

• Plastic containers
• Sponges or small rags
• Paint brushes- I buys packs at the dollar store for this kind of play.
• Sidewalk chalk

Usually I like to gradually set out one item after another to extend the play, but sometimes it can be fun to just put out a big collection of interesting items like this and see what your child wants to do with them.  As you hand these items to your toddler, they’ll know just how to play of course, but you can encourage all sorts of explorations.

Simple Water Play Ideas

{Let’s Explore in the Sunshine!}        

• Pour from one container to another.
• Use the sponge or a rag to transfer water from one container to another.  This kind of squeezing action is great for developing fine motor skills and is satisfying to little sensory systems.
• Grab a handful of rocks or outdoor toys for your tot to “clean.”
• Toss the sponge at a target (or at nothing at all, it’s just fun to toss wet things and see them splat.)
• Step on the wet sponge to feel it squish.

• Paint the sidewalk or the side of the house with water.
• If you have a spare paint roller your child can try that for painting too.
• Step in water and make foot prints.
• Let your child paint your hands or feet.
• Paint your child’s feet with water. Oh! That tickles!

• Dip the chalk in water and draw with it.
• Paint over the chalk lines.
• Pour the water on the chalk lines and wipes it away with the sponge.
• Drop chalk pieces in the water and stir them with the paint brush.
• Wrap the chalk in a wet rag and hand it to your toddler to find
• Drop rocks into the water container. Splash!

You don’t need lots of fancy toys or a water table to enjoy water play with your toddler.  Grab these ordinary household items and have fun.  For what it’s worth,  my tot loved doing this, but it still didn’t take longer than 10 minutes and we she was on to something else.  That’s totally normal for this age.  Short bursts of interesting activity – we might come back to this later.

I hope you have fun playing in the water with your toddler today!