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Kids love playing with water, there’s no doubt about that. Water play for toddlers is one of the BEST and EASIEST activities to set up!
We do a lot of water play in our house, especially when the temperatures warm up and those hot summer days come knocking on the door. It is one of our favorite outdoor activities in the summer. In fact, we occasionally engage in some indoor water play in the bathtub during the colder months because the kids love it so much. The kids get a bath AND enjoy some water playtime….why not?!
But, and it is a big but since we are a one income household, I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on materials for water play. And, honestly, you don’t need to!
Kids don’t need the fanciest of the fancy pools or water tables with all the bells and whistles. Keep it simple!
We do own a water table and love bringing it out, but I wanted to add to the water play experience and keep it interesting for the kids by creating a water play bin.
Benefits of Water Play for Toddlers
Water play is open-ended. It encourages independence, conversation and exploration. Water play sparks curiosity. Plus, it is easy screen-free entertainment for your busy toddler! There are seriously so many benefits of water play for your toddler. It truly amazes me how such a simple activity can benefit your little one in so many ways. Better yet, your toddler is just playing and having fun!
Strengthen Fine & Gross Motor Skills with Water Play
Water play also gives your toddler many opportunities to develop those fine and gross motor skills you hear about so much. The actions of pouring, scooping, squirting, scrubbing, stirring and squeezing strengthen fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Your toddler develops his/her gross motor skills by filling larger containers, buckets or pitchers with water and carrying them. Further, pouring the water from these heavier buckets develops your toddler’s ability to control his or her large muscle movements. Pouring the water from a larger container must be done slowly or the water will go everywhere. Pouring from a large bucket into a small pitcher or cup further develops your toddler’s hand-eye coordination.
Learn & Practice Social Skills with Water Play
Water play helps your toddler develop his/her social skills, especially when a sibling or friend is joining in on the fun. My son enjoys exploring the water, too. My daughter is learning to take turns and share the water play toys & tools. I often put her in the role of “teaching” my son or showing him how to do something. She wants to be in control, like most three year olds, so I have her lead the play in that way.
Water play encourages teamwork, too! For example, if my daughter is cleaning toys with a friend, one person uses the scrub brush while the other rinses. Then, after a few turns in this way, they switch jobs. Don’t get me wrong, we still have our moments, but this way of managing water play is currently working for us!
Teach, Learn & Explore New Concepts with Water Play
The learning opportunities that happen during water play are endless. In fact, my 3 ½ year old and I discussed the difference between sinking and floating after she observed her water squirt toys kept popping to the top of a water-filled pitcher after pushing them down. She picked up a rock from our yard and dropped it in the pitcher. We discussed why the rock sank to the bottom of the pitcher. It was a pretty cool teachable moment. I love when I can stop to teach something right in the middle of play.
Water Play is Inexpensive & Easy to Set Up
Water play is inexpensive and super easy to set up. Most of the “extras” are found at the Dollar Store, grocery store and dollar section at Target. Best of all, setting up your little ones with a bin of water and some plastic spoons and cups from the kitchen cabinets will give you some solid minutes to finish your cup of coffee. Maybe you can squeeze in 15 minutes of reading that book that’s been collecting dust on your desk, read a short devotion, or simply enjoy not being needed for a few minutes.
How to Set Up Water Play for Toddlers
You don’t need anything fancy to set up water play for your toddler. A simple plastic storage bin with a lid or a plastic dishpan from the Dollar Store, tools from the kitchen for scooping, pouring & transferring water, and small toys from the playroom. That’s all you need to set up a fun & engaging water play experience for your kiddo.
In fact, most of the supplies needed for a variety of water play ideas can be found at the Dollar Store (or Target Dollar Section), if you don’t already have them in your house.
Do some shopping around your house and look for extra things in the kitchen cabinets and drawers. This is a great way to declutter those utensils, plastic cups, old plastic food storage containers, pitchers and measuring tools.
You will also need a large plastic storage container or dishpan for holding the water. We had an under the bed storage bin that wasn’t being used. It is the perfect height because it is not too deep, but deep enough to keep water and toys inside. Plus, it has a lid. This means, at the end of the day after everything has sat in the sun and dried, it all goes inside the storage bin with lid on, staying clean for the next round of play.
You can also use another plastic basket or dishpan to hold all the tools you collected for water play. Seriously, make it work for you and your kids.
Look through the playroom for some toys to include in the water play. Cars, animals, and/or dinosaurs would be fun additions. Mega Bloks, Legos and Duplos would be great for scooping, mixing, transferring and washing. Add in some color recognition & sorting practice by scooping and transferring Legos into plastic bowls or cups designated red, yellow, green and blue. The possibilities are truly endless!
Now you are ready to set up some fun and engaging water play for your toddler!
Simply fill the large plastic storage container or dishpan with water. I chose to fill with warm water from our house rather than fill with cold water from the hose.
Give your toddler the bin of tools and watch them play.
It is important to watch how your toddler plays. Depending on the age of your toddler, you may need to do some modeling and guiding before he/she plays independently.
Last summer, when my daughter was 2 ½, she absolutely loved pouring and scooping from one container to another. I had to get her started, but then she was engaged for at least 20 minutes. This year, she is engaged with the water play MUCH longer and I don’t need to get her started. I may need to jump in and create a new game or show her a new way of using a tool if she gets bored, but other than that, she enjoys playing for at least 30 minutes. I was able to drink my coffee while the kiddos played with the water this year and I consider that a win in the mom world!
Water Play Ideas for Toddlers
Scrub the Toys Clean
Squirt some pure & gentle dish soap into the water and give the toys a bath. Give your toddler a toothbrush or small scrub brush and let her go to town washing the cars, animals and/or dinosaurs. If you are feeling really brave, let your toddler get the toys “dirty” by covering them in dirt/mud. Let them paint the animals with washable paint. Then scrub them clean and lay out in the sun to dry. My daughter LOVES cleaning so she enjoys washing the dishes. We have a bin of play kitchen dishes for outside. They get dirty even though they are kept in a closed container. So she washed them for me and enjoyed every minute of it.
Make Some Lemonade
Add a few drops of yellow food coloring into the water so it looks like lemonade. Give your toddler a pitcher and mixing spoon. Throw in some reusable ice cubes. Talk about the steps for making lemonade. Let your toddler practice making lemonade by scooping the ice cubes into the pitcher, pouring some water into the pitcher, mixing it up and then pouring into cups. My daughter loves pretending to cook and make things for friends and family members. So this is an engaging water play idea for her! She loved every minute of it!
Stir Up Alphabet Soup
I grabbed the letters from a foam ABC puzzle I found at the Dollar Store, a large pot from my daughter’s play kitchen (we accumulated an extra), a mixing spoon, or ladle, and some bowls. Put the letters into the water and make some Alphabet Soup. Similar to making lemonade, talk about the steps for making Alphabet Soup. You can even turn this into a learning game by calling out a letter for your toddler to find and scoop into the pot with a large mixing spoon. Magnetic letters or these foam bathtub letters would work great for this water play idea, too! Mix up the soup, let it “cook” and ladle into bowls for friends and family members.
Teddy Bear Color Sort
We love playing with our counting bears! They work great for coloring sorting and are the perfect size for scooping out of the water with a slotted mixing spoon. I set my toddler up with a bowl for each color, a slotted mixing spoon and water filled with counting bears. Then she scooped the bears out of the water, transferring them into the matching color bowl. We also added some drops of blue food coloring to the water for fun! My daughter enjoyed just freely scooping and transferring the bears to different containers.
Pour Water
This water play idea came from Busy Toddler. It looked like so much fun and my daughter LOVES pouring! You simply place pitchers and cups of different sizes inside your large storage bin. Then let your toddler go to town pouring the water from one pitcher to another. That’s it! Super easy and entertaining for your little one!
Conclusion
Water play is a well-rounded activity for toddlers. Not only are there endless opportunities for learning new ideas and strengthening motor skills, it is fun and a high interest activity for your little one. Plus, it is inexpensive and so easy to set up on a hot summer afternoon. I am pretty sure you have everything you need to set up some engaging water play today!
Does your toddler enjoy playing with water? What are some of your favorite activities? Comment below with your toddler’s favorite water play activity! I love hearing how others play with their toddlers 🙂
