Safe, fun and not too messy ways for DD to play with water?

[jennifer_r]

DD is 16 months. She loves her bath and I'd like it if maybe she could play more with water in other ways. When my son was a toddler/preschooler, he loved to play at the kitchen sink. I think he just stood on a kitchen chair. DD is too young for that and I'd be afraid of her falling. When the weather gets warmer, I can get her a water table or even fill up some large tupperwares with water but I'd like to do something now. Any suggestions?


Jennifer

Mom to:
Christopher 12/29/89
Adelaide 8/23/04
Bronwyn 11/9/05

[hillview]

argh my looong answer just got blown away. Suffice to say my neighbor has a modern (split) bucket so no risk and supervises her grandson with a bucket of water (towel under it) and some toys ... he LOVES it ... grandson is 19 months old. Wonder if that would work. All the water safety goes without saying always supervise and the split buckets don't allow a baby head to fit on one side (does that make sense). He loved to fill and dump containers of water.

HTH
/hillary

[mudder17]

Umm...Kaya uses the learning tower to play in the kitchen sink. She loves it. If you were to do that, though, at 16 months, you might want to get a long strip of cloth and add a "railing" around the sides until she's old enough to not fall through. I didn't get it until Kaya was 19 months, I think, and she hasn't had any trouble with it. Oh, and she can actually move the darn thing by herself when she's motivated enough! (Not always a good thing, LOL.)

ETA: before the learning tower, I would turn the bathtub water on to a trickle and she could stand next to it and collect the water in her various bath toys. I just put a towel on the floor next to it and she was able to comfortably reach the spout and the towel would collect the extra water. I don't know what the set-up of your bathroom/bathtub is, though.


Eileen

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[brittone2]

Learning Tower here too :)

DS for quite a while now (he's almost 23 months) has been enjoying a small pitcher (from a ceramic tea set) and a small tea cup. I just put a bath towel under it and he pours it back and forth. I refill the pitcher as needed but the towel sops up any water he spills (which is only a few teaspoons full).

[mudder17]

I guess I need to get a tea set for Kaya. But he's really good with a ceramic tea set? That's really cool!

Kaya is loving the little silicone condiment bowls from Crate and Barrel and is currently playing with water from the bathtub (trickle from the spout). I gave her a bunch of towels as well and she's wiping up spills and just generally enjoying herself. :)


Eileen

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Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[Neatfreak]

I've been letting my daughter splash in the sink while I wash all of her plastic dishes and containers after lunch. She stands on a regular kitchen chair with me right beside her, keeping watch. Maybe I'm fortunate because she doesn't wiggle about at the sink and stands very nicely, but I've been okay with her "helping me" with the dishes since she was about 16 months old ...

She does like to dump water beside the sink on the counter, though. Good thing I have lots of tea towels ...

[holliam]

We use a Learning Tower with our daughter for water play. She is 16 months also. Never had any problems with her falling through, etc.

Holli

[betsydenny]

A suggestion I read in a book is to open up the dishwasher door and let that be the "table" for water play. I love the idea tho I have to admit the one time I tried it, about 2 months ago, DS who was prob about 14 mo- just dumped all the water and kept asking for more. He prefers to be using the sink where I leave a slight trickle of water going (if anyone has any brilliant ideas of how to recylce the play water- I am all ears!)

I generally let him stand on a kitchen chair or big stool and just keep an eye on him. No room in a small apt for the learning tower but boy it would be great! I also put an old towel on the floor by the sink for the stuff that gets poured on the floor!

Good luck!
Betsy

[brittone2]

Yeah, he is actually really careful. He did break one piece of it at one point ( a saucer I believe?) but I think that just demonstrated for him what will happen if he drops it on the wooden floor ;) It freaks my parents out tremendously but he's beeing using a regular water glass or a small quilted ball jar as a drinking glass since he was about 12 months old. We've had a few bounces and one or two unlucky ones (for the glass) but he's pretty careful.

[KrisM]

I put him in his booster seat at the table and give him a few bowls and some water. I put a bunch of towels under his seat, but it's only water, so it's not too messy. Once he's done, we clean up and change his clothes.

[longtallsally]

My DH recently took a Play Therapy class for his master's in Human Relations. In that class, one classic toy they recommended using was a sand & water table. I have seen one in a catalog; it was about $100. The table was a fairly low to the ground (18-24 inches I think), made of plastic, and had a divider to separate the sand from the water. The sand/water trays are only a few inches deep, so you don't have to worry about your DC falling headfirst into a pool of water. You put plastic utensils (cups, bowls, little buckets, mini-shovels & rakes, sifters etc) and maybe some plastic action figures in there and kids apparently love it. I think you can even order special "sand" that doesn't harden/clump. Sounds a bit messy for indoors to me, but it's therapeutic! You could always skip the sand and stick with water in the trays; less mess that way. Hope that helps...

[corrie23]

My DD's older, but here are some suggestions that might work for now (or a bit later):

1. Aquadoodle...I'd bring it outside with some paint brushes, a spray bottle, and a dish of water. DD could paint, spray, dump, or whatever to draw on it and it would dry fairly quickly in the warmth/sun.

2. Shallow kiddie pool with cups, bowls, etc...TRU sells these inflatable kiddie pools for $5 that are shallow with low "wall" all around them. I think they come in both a butterfly and a frog shape. DD has had one the past 2 summers and loves to play in it with plastic cups/bowls.

3. "Car wash" DD could spend forever in ANY weather with this one. I set her up with sidewalk chalk, washcloths/rags, and a spray bottle. She draws on, then washes off her LT cozy coupe or her Kettler. Our neighbors' kids ranged from 3yrs-10yrs. this summer and they would all run over when DD (age 2) played this, and fight over who got to spray, wipe, draw, etc. DD was doing this in the backyard today despite the 35 degree temps.

4. Art with water....Bring out the art easel, a bowl of water and paintbrushes and let DD paint the black chalkboard side.

5. Washing "dishes" DD does this a lot now. She is old enough that she can sit at the vanity in my bedroom and play in the sink (we have double sinks on a long ****er-type vanity in our master bedroom). Anyway, she uses a cuticle brush, soap/soap dishes, washcloths, cups etc and will just play forever. She also likes to wash down the counters (which requires a bit more supervision to prevent major mess). She'll also do this at the sink in her bathroom, standing on her step-stool.

6. She loves bathtub play too, and most recently we've brought eh "carwash" idea indoors. She drawn with bathtub crayons and then wipes them off with a washcloth. I also leave the spout running at a trickle so she can fill up cups/dump/play with the running water. Sometimes I'll let her do this when it's not really a full-fledged bath, just an opportunity for her to play without mess in the water. I'll sit on the floor next to the tub and read a book, make phone calls, or play with her but she's conten for as long as I'll let her stay in there.

As an aside, another fun item for the water table/pool is those plastic ball-pit balls. They float and aren't too big, so they make fun water toys.

HTH
-Corrie