Toddlers & Water
There is just something about water that gets the little ones all intrigued. Maybe its the sounds it makes as it swooshes around a cup or a sink, or the way it makes everything way more fun.
The thing is that most of us, for sanity purposes, do our very best to make sure our Toddlers never get a hold of water, because if they do…. SPILLS HAPPEN. And with spills comes clean up, and clean up means more work for us. So we tend to spend a lot of time chasing our kids away from the water, again and again. We are never going to make them less interested in getting wet, so we may as well embrace the love, and find some ways they can be enjoy water safely!
Watering Plants
Indoor plants are trending right now in the revival of the Mid Century Modern designs we are seeing everywhere. Watering indoor and outdoor plants is the perfect way to allow your toddler to explore with water while imbuing in them a sense of love and responsibility for other living things.
All you need is a child size watering can.
Amazon: Small Watering Can
Transferring Water
Toddlers love to transfer water from one vessel into another, and there are many different ways they can do it depending on their fine motor development. Pictured above is one of our students transferring water with a medicine/eye dropper. Just demonstrate to your Toddler how to squeeze and release the bulb at the top, move the dropper over to the other vessel, and then repeat. This lesson is super simple to replicate:
I picked up this dropper in Dollar Tree, but you can find one around the house from an empty medicine bottle or face serum product. You can use any 2 small plastic cups like plastic shot glasses, or pictured above 2 espresso cups from Nespresso! The water is colored with a drop of food coloring for an added element of interest.
Pouring Water
This little girl took the eye dropper lesson, and after a while working at it, she decided she was more interested in pouring the water between the two glasses instead of using the eyedropper. Pouring water from one cup to another is another Toddler favorite.
You will notice in all of the pictures the children are wearing aprons. This is practically how we ensure that we are not changing outfits 20 times a day. These aprons are excellent and available at IKEA!
Ikea: Aprons
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/aprons-18852/
There are many more great ideas. We loved this post by Kavanaugh Report on pouring lessons with young Toddlers.
With the right preparation and planning your child can explore all the things that interest him/her in a way that doesn’t add too much work or pressure on you.
XOXO,
Chana’le