Bath time isn’t just about getting clean; it’s an opportunity for imaginative play, sensory exploration, and quality bonding with your child. We wanted to add some excitement to our bath time and tried out some of these bath play ideas.
Bathtub Ball Pit
First, we decided to add the fun of a ball pit right into our bathtub. We took colorful plastic balls to transform bath time into a playful adventure. I also set up a small bucket at one corner of the tub and showed my son how to aim and toss the balls into the bucket, celebrating with cheers and applause every time he scored. This interactive and engaging activity not only adds an element of fun to bath time but also improves hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills.
Pool Noodle Slide Splashdown
Next, we took a pool noodle, cut it in half, and transformed it into a water slide for our favorite toys or plastic balls. This DIY water slide not only added an element of excitement to bath time but also helped work on his fine motor skills and kept my toddler busy for a bit.
Bath Time Memory Game
We started to play this memory game in the bath when my daughter was around 4-5 years old. Start by gathering a handful of toys and placing them along the edge of the bathtub. Unfortunately a lot of squirt toys, like rubber ducks, never dry out on the inside and grow mold inside them, so we switched to these mold-free splash toys instead. After placing toys on the edge of the bathtub, I ask my daughter to turn away while I hide one of these toys. When she turns around, she needs to guess which toy I removed. The number of toys you hide can be adjusted to suit the child’s age and cognitive development, making it an adaptable game that grows with them. Start with a few toys and gradually increase the complexity as they master the art of memory.
Mystery Discoveries in the Tub
For this activity, we use either water balloons or self-sealing water toys. I hid a small toy inside each self-sealing toy, creating a captivating surprise. My toddler had so much fun opening each one to uncover the hidden treasures. Then he decided to take charge and hide toys himself. He was also color-matching the toy to the color of the ball.
Melting frozen toys
First, I froze little toys in ice trays. I used little cars for my son and little animals for my daughter. Armed with warm water and various tools, we began the process of liberation. My son, being a toddler, had less patience and submerged ice cubes in the water to get to his cars faster. My daughter, who is 7, used droppers, syringes, and small teapots to pour warm water over the ice cubes to free her little toys. They both had fun!
Bathtub Color Sorting Challenge
Gather an assortment of cups from around your bathroom and line them up along the edge of the tub. Now, it’s time for the color-matching fun to begin. Your child can scour the bathwater for colorful balls and aim to place each one into the cup that matches its hue. This engaging activity not only sharpens their color recognition skills but also encourages dexterity and problem-solving as they figure out which ball goes where.
Bubble Bath Car Wash
This time we decided to introduce an element of frothy fun by adding a bubble bath to our bathtub play. My son loves his toy cars and when he saw foamy bubbles he immediately used them to play car wash. We grabbed his toy cars and covered them in bubbly foam. With a brush, we cleaned them and rinsed them with water. This bath time car wash became a favorite pastime, combining imaginative play with sensory exploration. The same activity can be done for washing toy animals. When my daughter was little we used bath paint to paint on toy animals, we covered them in bubbly foam and rinsed them off.
Potion Making Fun
This time we transformed our bath time into a magical laboratory. We gathered tools like droppers, syringes, and tweezers, along with some spooky items like eyeballs and spiders, and also pretty flowers and gems. In order to create a fizzy experience we added a spoon of citric acid and a spoon of baking soda to an empty bowl and added some food coloring. When we added water, the potions fizzed and bubbled. It was like creating their own magical brews in the bathtub!
Bath Time Storytelling
Picture this: a warm bath, a sea of toys, and the bubbling excitement of imaginative tales.
For this game, we also set various toys on the edge of the bath. Then we take turns making up stories linking those toys together. The more absurd details you add to the story the more fun it is. We try to use not just animal toys, but a mix of everything from cars and trucks to bottles and cups. Sharks may surf on cars, and cups can sprout wings for magical journeys. The stories they create in this watery setting are not just fun but also a powerful exercise in creativity, language development, and problem-solving.
Themed bath play
It’s fun to make a themed bath for each season or holiday. Since it’s October at the time of writing this article we made a Spooky Halloween Bath. We gathered all things Halloween – pumpkins, plastic spiders, eerie plastic eyeballs, and any other spooky decorations we could find. Kids created some eerie drink recipes with floating eyeballs, spiders, and gems. They also used a scoop to see what they could catch in the Halloween waters.
Here are some other ideas for themed baths:
- Under the Sea Adventure. Use blue food coloring to tint the water to resemble the ocean. Add plastic sea creatures like fish, dolphins, and seashells to create an underwater scene. Play ocean-themed music
- Dinosaur Discovery. Place toy dinosaurs in the bathwater to create a prehistoric setting. Use green or brown bath bombs or colored water to mimic a dinosaur habitat. Freeze small dino toys in the ice and melt them in bath water.
- Princess or Prince Palace. Fill the bath with bubbles and add a few floating flowers. Provide plastic crowns, tiaras, or wands for your little royalty. Use a gentle, sweet-scented bubble bath. Use a magic wand to turn into different characters/animals. Make fun hairstyles with bubbly foam.
- Outer Space Adventure. Dim the bathroom lights to create a cosmic atmosphere. Use glow-in-the-dark stars to decorate the bathroom walls. Share interesting space facts and stories while they soak among the stars. Add glow sticks.
- Jungle Safari. Fill the bath with green water using safe bath colorants. Place toy jungle animals like lions, giraffes, and elephants around. Read jungle-themed books or talk about the animals you’d find on a safari.
- Pirate’s Cove. Have your child catch plastic coins and jewels from the water using a scoop. Add a pirate ship or boat toy. Sing sea shanties.
- Fairy Tale Forest. Use green-tinted bathwater to create a forest setting. Add fairy or gnome figurines and tiny mushrooms. Read a fairy tale or make up your own enchanting story during the bath.
- Color bath. Make a bath for each color. Add toys of the same color.
- Ice cream shop. Bring various cups and scoops to the bath. Use bubble foam to fill the cups with “ice cream”. Add color powder or food coloring on top.