Roundup: Playful Learning Baths

I have wonderful memories of taking baths in the heavy monsoon rains when I was a little girl.  Or bringing my doll to pretend our balde was a mermaid's pool.  I suppose it was natural for me to create magical worlds and playful learning for Ladybug Girl too.

As soon as Ladybug Girl turned two, she graduated from her baby bath time in her room.

Purely sensorial water play as a baby -- learning to love the feel of the water through bonding time with me.

I was resistant to moving to a place where I wouldn't be as comfortable giving baths anymore.  But I realized we could be having a lot of new fun together too.   We had a "swim" area like this made when we renovated her bathroom.

  This makeshift tub is very low-end DIY but we love it!

I started to join her baths rather than just give her baths.  This gives us moments to bond, and lets me introduce some playful learning.  In the times I can't join her when I'm fixing the house, I realized these fun baths buy me the most alone time (30 minutes minimum with yaya watching over her):

Sorting and matching under the proper words, for logical reasoning.  Bath toys are from Rustan's.

Identifying ocean animals.  Ocean In My Pocket toys were half off in toy stores.  Sadly I can't find them anymore.

Sensorial bubble baths which we pretend are beards, snow, islands, etc.  We use bars from Lush

Gross motor skills play : practicing swimming and using handles to pull back and forth.  These were hotel tubs.

Shaving cream painting: sensorial fun learning about mixing colors and making art!

Scooping and mixing fine motor practice and imagination play.

Washing of dishes used for painting.  Notice that we sometimes bring the shampoo and baby wash outside?  Just to change it up and have more fun!

These are some of our best playful learning bathtime tools that have taken us through toddler to preschool years and are still going strong.  They are always ready in the shower area:

Munchkin bath crayons, Ocean in My Pocket animals, Cheap 'gems' from palengke, Ikea unbreakable mirror

Just by googling bath time activities, you'll get a lot of great ideas, like this fishing game and water balloon color mixing.

The downside of all this fun is that Ladybug Girl isn't all that independent in washing herself yet.  

She's usually much too busy having a happy childhood.