Our top 5 easy Water Play activities

Who's child loves playing with water??? Its a yes all round, right?? Children always seem to gravitate towards water. Washing the dishes, they want to help! They see a puddle, they have to jump in!!! My boys LOVE water and there are so many ways you can use water in a child's play or set up an easy activity that will keep them engaged and cool in the hot weather. Even the simplest of water play set ups have so many benefits for our children and the best part of this type of sensory/messy play is that it is a free resource as it comes from our tap!

Benefits of water play:

Water play has so many learning benefits for our children. Here's a few of the learning outcomes children gain from water play, unknown to them a lot of the time as they learn it all through play.

Mathematics concepts such as mass, volume, capacity can be learnt through playing with water by pouring and scooping, measuring, transferring the water. Mathematical language such as empty, half full, full, heavy, light, can be introduced and understood. Lots of Problem solving and logical reason happens when they play with water.

Water play allows for the development of children's fine and gross motor skills by using their hands to explore the water and the objects in the water. They also practice their hand eye coordination by pouring, squirting, scrubbing, squeezing, transferring and stirring the water as they play. All these types of play helps to develop and strenghten all their small muscles in their hands.

When children play with water it improves their language and speech as they play they use their imagination and talk about what they are doing as they play. You can take this opportunity to introduce new language or words such as empty, full, splash, wet etc by playing or sitting along side smaller children and by using descriptive words this will expand their vocabulary.

Water play allows for lots of creativity and imagination play too. Our water play always escalates and its always guaranteed someone or both are soaked from head to toe by the end! I always try to do water play outside especially on warm days as it also helps cool them down too.

Here are our top 5 easy water play activities that my boys love. Easy to set up, using things you have in your home and that will keep them busy long enough for you to enjoy a coffee.

Simply water:

Never under estimate a bucket, tuff tray or basin of just water. Put some cups, scoops, medicine syringes, sieves, pots pans whatever you have around the house and let them pour, scoop, transfer, sponge and explore the water. My boys are 4 and nearly 7 and they still love this simple activity. Add some animals, your wilted flowers or random toys, a sponge, cloth and a bit of fairy liquid and they will busy for ages washing them. Or why not add some food colouring to change it up. So simple but lots of learning and fun for the children.

DIY sprinkler:

Such an easy activity to set up all you need is an empty plastic bottle, carefully punch some small holes in it ( I used a small screwdriver), heavy duty tape to tape the hose to the bottle and hang it somewhere the kids can run through it. Great for keeping them cool on a hot day. If you have a powerful hose you can lie it on the ground and the water will shoot out!

Check out our reel on how to make it by clicking the link below

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CRguN_BHEVw/?utm_medium=copy_link

Ice play:

Ice play is always a great one for a hot day. You can use anything you have around the house to rescue. Minimum prep, just full up the ice cube tray or a tuba wear box with some small toys, fill with water and leave them over night. We love doing Lego people rescue (pull all body parts, apart and freeze separately as it will take them longer to build them after they have been rescued!) You could use cars, figures, anything small enough to fit into the ice tray or container. Fill up some empty squeezy bottles (shampoo, hand-wash, body wash bottles, squirty drinking water bottles) with warm water and let the rescue begin. We love ice play and I love setting up themed ice rescue for the boys. Its always a winner!

To see a reel on our ice play click the links below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CRGvbm9n8aX/?utm_medium=copy_link

Water balloons:

How many times have you spent ages filling up water balloons for them to be gone in 2 seconds. Why not hang them from the line and let them try burst them with a bat. They definitely last a lot longer! It's a great family activity too with plenty of learning involved: hand eye coordination, bilateral coordination, visual perception, problem solving, patience, concentration and great fun.

To watch the reel click the link below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPdsfACFB4S/?utm_medium=copy_link

Water painting:

We always combine this with chalk painting first but you can just do it as a stand alone activity. Simply fill up a bucket of water, put some paint brushes in it and let them water paint outside. This one always keeps the boys busy and they love to draw pictures and watch them disappear in the sun! Lots of learning involved in this one including science and how the sun makes water evaporate.

Check out our reel on water painting by clicking the link below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CNC33ftla-l/?utm_medium=copy_link

I have lots of other fun water ideas using lots of other shop bought resources on my Instagram page so do check them out.

Enjoy the great weather this week!