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WARNING: This post contains a fab competition!!!
Some children love bath time, others can find it a traumatic experience. I went through all sorts with my 3 children. None of them liked bath time initially but once mummy injected a little fun into the experience they wanted to stay in the bath all day!!!!
Let’s put it this way, if you make something into a chore that needs doing, it can be far less appealing than a fun activity that both parents and children can enjoy. There are so many different things that you can do, here are a few to get you started.
Bath Time With Mummy/Daddy
Bathing can be far more comforting for children when accompanied by a parent. Rather than standing or sitting at the side of the bath, get in with them. It’s much more reassuring for children and helps them feel safer in the bath. Once they get used to bathing then parents can gradually slow down the number of times they get into the bath with their child until eventually, they’re no longer needed other than for helping with washing and watching.
Bubble Fun
Who doesn’t love bubbles! You create the bubbles for the bath by swishing the water around, or simply let the tap do it when running the bath. They’re ideal for sensory play. The sensation of the bubbles on the skin and also when they pop can be particularly appealing to children. If you’re super quiet you might even be able to hear them (that’ll keep them quiet for a few minutes). You can make it into a fun learning experience by talking about the bubbles to help develop language and cognitive skills.
It’s great fun to stick a bath mirror at the side of the bath. Then using the bubbles create crazy hairstyles and beards. Add a touch of food colouring for a dash of colour.
I’ve been using Sanex products on myself and my husband for about 15 years now. It made sense to try the Sanex Dermo Kids Bodywash when the little ones came along. It’s hypoallergenic, pediatrician approved, and also fabulous at creating plenty of bubbles to play with.
Draw a Masterpiece
You can get hold of nontoxic bath crayons easily. These are great for encouraging active creative play and can work as a wonderful distraction and also become an incentive for children to take baths. Draw pictures together or let them get creative. Mine used to draw waves on the site of the bath and fish, seaweed etc. Get creative, why not try to design a whole new marine creature. You can carry on the fun and learning by watching Octonaughts, a great cartoon for ages 3+ that also teaches children about various marine creatures.
Learning Numbers / Letters / Spellings
You can even practice numbers and letters in the bath with your special crayons. When your canvas is full simply wash them off and start again. Another option is foam letters and numbers. These are great for sensory play as the letters and numbers are squishy and also help develop fine motor skills with picking up and sticking the foam pieces to the bath. It’s a great way to get the younger children recognising the letters and numbers and also for older children to try and spell out words.
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Slime Bath
Adding a safe slime product to a bath can not only make it more fun but can also make it into an ASMR experience. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR is a physical sensation starting from the head and progressing down the spine and limbs. It is likened to a feeling of low grade euphoria and can be stimulated by auditory, tactile and visual stimuli. Slime is perfect for this as they are numerous types available. They’re colourful, feel gloopy or jelly like and some will make the bath water crackle and pop – no rice crispies required! We love to use the products from Zimpli kids as they are biodegradable, have numerous products as well as different colours to choose from. They also have a range of sized packs to make sure they are affordable for all.
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Bath Toys
There are all sorts of fun toys that kids can use in the bath. The more interactive the better. The marble run type toys are very popular. Little ones can pour in water and watch it swoosh through and out of the bottom. Dare I say it, but, you can also get toys inspired by the baby shark song, if you feel brave enough. Be warned it might mean having to sing the song each time they play with it. ?
Other Toys
Just because a toy isn’t labeled as a bath toy it doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect as one. Just the other day my son was sent some Heroes of Goo Jit Zu toys. These are a great example of the sort of toys that would be great to play with in the bath, yet are not labeled as bath toys. These toys even squirt water adding to the fun factor. Make sure you use toys that do not use batteries unless they’re designed for use in a bath.
Kitchen Utensils
Ha, I know! Who’d have thought it? Kids love to play with all sorts and find the most surprising things enjoyable. It’s like children’s fascination with cardboard boxes, but obviously those are not suitable for bath use. Instead, consider plastic cups and jugs for pouring – great for hand-eye coordination. Even strainers can double up as a bath toy when they’re not being used to strain food.
Have a Boat Race
Kids love paper boats and they’re super easy to make. Whats a better way to get a child completely engrossed in what they are doing and distracted by the fact that they are bathing than a boat race. This is a fun and creative activity as you’re little one can decorate and name their boat before the event. Once ready, racers will grab a straw and blow their boat from the starting line to the end of the bath. Try best of 5 or 10, the extra use of puff and laughing will have the added effect of tiring them out. No cheating, mark your wins with your crayons on the side of the bath. Carefully planned, this can coincide with milk or hot chocolate and then bedtime.
Frozen Toys
You may find you need to add a little extra warm water during this activity. A great sensory play idea is freezing toys into blocks of ice and then playing with them or watching them melt. Obviously, you’ll be supervising the thawing of the block. Items that are great to freeze inside a block include plastic fish, dinosaurs and other smallish plastic toys.
Summary
These are just some of the fun things you can do to engage your child whilst they’re having a bath, teach and ensure that bath time becomes a fun experience for you both rather than a traumatic one. Consider activities your child(ren) enjoy and adapt them where you can to ensure bath time becomes “fun time!”
What sort of bath time activities do your children or grandchildren enjoy the most?
What activity/activities from those mentioned are your favourites?
Fancy winning a super slime bundle from Zimpli Kids?
I know, daft question!
(picture provided by Zimpli kids & adjusted by Melanie Edjourian)
Items may vary from those shown.
The competition ends on the 6th September 2020.
Entry is super easy, simply fill in the rafflecopter form:
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Good Luck!
Enter here:
Winner: Julia L
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When my boys were little the bath was always filled with toys and most of them didn’t even belong in the bath! I’m sure my nephew and niece would love this slime baff.
Ha, my son takes all sorts of toys in too. It’s more fun to have a good range.
My sons baths have more toys than water in them if he gets his way, fab ideas to make it more entertaining particularly like the learning element with letters
I’m sure my grandchildren would have a load of fun with this.
I’m sure they would Peter.
My boys play with the bath letters and numbers…. they would spend hours in the bath playing with those!
We loved those too. Mine played with them in and out of the bath. They’re good fun and a great way to teach letters.
Looks like great fun for bath time – I love their products!
My niece loves using bath crayons. I think the frozen toys idea sounds good I’ve never heard of that before
These look such fun! We don’t have a bath so I’d gift these to children in need!
we always try to make bath time fun, its much easier
I love bath crayons. My eldest two love writing and drawing in the bath and my youngest likes to try and copy them which encourages him to hold the crayon and start mark making. Recommend them to everyone!
It’s a really good activity for little ones and they learn at the same time as having fun.
Boat Race
this looks amazing, zimpli kids looks so much fun
my neice likes to play fishing in the bath with her little net and plastic fish. Keeps her entertained for ages
Cant beat something that keeps them entertained at bath time
my kid really adore jelli baff they make bathtime o much more fun!
My niece would love this thanks, how kind ❤️
Bath time can be fun and engaging!
This would be perfect for my little ones, they’d love it
bubbles are always a winner in our house….even for the big kids haha my boys tried a slime product at xmas too which was great fun
Anything to help pass the time at the moment is a huge help. Luckily, my 9 month old Grandson has always loved water so bathtime is fun. The Sanex kids is great; the bubbles last for ages and it smells really good. Great post; thankyou.
My daughter loves having baths, and I quite often buy the sanex kids products as they seem to be the best for my daughters skin.
Our kids can not get enough of bath time. Some novel ways to keep it fresh and fun. Will be testing these ideas out with my Bath Queen.
Bubbles are so much fun but I’ve never thought about the frozen toy idea and really love this as a suggestion.
My children all enjoyed kitchen utensils in the bath, plastic cups and spoons, sieves all make bathtime fun
My little one loves his boats in the bath, I’ve never thought of making them before.
great fun for the kids would keep thank you
Kids love bathtime when it’s fun!
We always had a sieve in the bath, such fun to watch the water run through! Rubber ducks are a must too!
Sieves are great fun!!! Kids love watching the water rushing through.
My kids love these and we would really love to win
My kids love the Gelli Baff – but I’m always nervous of clogging up the plug hole!
Zimpli products are fantastic, my daughter especially loves the gelli baff
My siblings love bubbles and them making bubble beards reminds me of me as a kid
Looks fun some great ideas will keep these in mind
This stuff is great fun! Who new bathtime could be so much fun!
Brilliant article on how to make bath time fun for the kids, its given me a lot of new ideas and inspiration to make it more exciting for my two toddlers.
my kids love bath time, if its made fun. they have several bath toys including a swimming shark
We find sanex great and the slime baff sounds like great fun!
A turtle toy was always a favourite…. As well as making bubble hair and beards x
My children would have so much fun with this, they both love bathtime and this would make it even more magical! Xx
We use Sanex Dermo Kids Bodywash already and it’s perfect for my son’s sensitive skin. He has a lot of fun in the bath with his toys but slime would bring it to another level! I’m so glad it’s the biodegradable too.
We’ve tried Zimpli kids before, and the kids really did love it, it’s so much fun and great for keeping young kids happy and occupied! xx
My girls love the Zimpli Kids products even as old as they are. They are such fun x
Great prize
My son takes ages in the bath!
When we were kids there was 3 of us in the bath at the same time but we still managed to play with empty pots and a sieve!
Great ideas, I can’t wait to change them.
Bathtime fun sensory too
would these for the grandchildren 🙂
Several great bath ideas that I had never thought of. Thank you! Making bubbles is always top of the list for us but, yes, any toy or any jug from the kitchen always proves entertaining.
My children would really enjoy this
We’ve tried a few zimpli Kids products before and my kids absolutely love them. I love the look of the new bath bombs.
It’s been a while since my children were at ‘bathing; ages – but I do remember it was a rough time. Some of these ideas would have been great back then.
My SOn loves bath time, we play cooking in the bath with wooden cooking spoon and measuring cups
Plenty of slime to go into the bath to greate enjoyment.
My son hates bathtime until he is in the bath and until we wash his hair. Bubbles and lots of them are his favourite thing as well as trying anything and everything he can to see if it floats x
my son would love all of these 🙂 he loves bath time
I love the huge variety of bath toys and items available to make things fun. A lot different to when I was a kid!
I love the idea of a paper boat race. I think the kids would too!
What fun to have in the bath! Always good to make it a fun space for kids.
My little boy enjoys his baths but these ideas would make it even more fun. I’ll need to get the foam letters and numbers to help him recognise them more.
Bath time is great fun my grandson stays in till his fingers are crinkly
Some great ideas to make bathtime more than just a ‘splash nanny’ event when my grandchildren stay, first on my list are the bathtime crayons
this stuff all looks like good old fashioned fun for kids
I love your bath time ideas. Bubbles are a must in our household but we have skin allergies. It was nice to consider using Santex and we will have to try it in future.
My little ones both love baths and there are some great ideas here!
Always love new ideas to make bath time fun! Have been wanting to try the slime for a long time. Will have a go at a boat race tonight. Also love Sanex and the foam letters- will put that on my list as my eldest is four and practicing spelling words. Thanks for the tips!
Some really good ideas, thank you. Will be great try them out
What a lovely giveaway thank you for the opportunity my children would have so much fun with these goodies 😊
My son loves bath time he would definitely like this
My daughter loves bathtime and plays with all her toys in the bath. Kitchen utensils make for great imaginative play.
My niece would love this x
My daughter would really love all those bubbles to play with.
I love the freezing toys idea, we did this last year for elf on the shelf with one of my daughters dolls and the kids loved it, I’d not thought about doing it again but I will now they all enjoyed it so much