Bath Tips

Tip Number 1:

We have a lot of bath time toys. With my first child I never really knew how to wash them. Now I take the plastic toys out, put them in a medium sized net laundry bag and wash them in the top rack of the dishwasher.

With the fabric ones I put them in a small sized net laundry bag and wash them in the wash machine with towels.

This way they get clean, but not lost!

Tip Number 2:

My youngest likes to drink bath water from his tug boat bath toy. Gross I know. It is a common trait that you can read about here.

You can A) Pick your battles. Let's just face it, as a parent we can't fight with our kids about everything. Experts say that you shouldn't encourage this behavior, but it's not going to hurt your child in a really bad way. Soapy water may give them a tummy ache. Germs however are everywhere. Kids are exposed to them on a daily basis.

You can B) Take them out of the tub to go get a drink of water. If your child is like mine, they will hate getting out of the tub because it's cold. The kitchen is after all the place for drinking. I tried this, but I found that it didn't just punish my child, but it also punished me. It was a pain in the drain!

You can do what I do C) Get a glass of water prior to bath time. Have them drink and go potty before bath. Maybe put a glass of kitchen water on back edge of the tub. If you see them drinking from a bath toy, have them drink from their glass instead. If they choose to drink from their toy after you have warned them not to, in my house they loose the toy.

Tip Number 3:

Get creative with your toys. Just like kitchen pans can be used as drums, so can other things in the bath.

Get a sponge and a small bucket. Why you might ask? My husband took my oldest to visit a Montessori School {Just to check it out}. They said that in order to build hand eye coordination squeezing a sponge builds the muscles in the hand. Then they can do things like cut and draw easier. They have fun messing with a sponge. Using scissors in the beginning can be frustrating for the child because they don't have the muscle coordination and it's a skill that's yet to be refined.

Throw a plastic pitcher and plastic cup in the tub. This too was a Montessori School tip. They were having 2 and 3 year old kids pour from a pitcher into a glass outside the tub. Guess what? None of them were missing. My husband couldn't believe it! To learn how to pour have them practice in the tub; where messes are ok! This too builds hand eye coordination.

Other ideas: Funnels would be fun! Plastic measuring cups could be a lesson about full and 1/2 full. I could see my kids playing with a Turkey Baster in the bath tub and loving it! This totally pushes creative play and again increases hand eye coordination.

A Giveaway:

  

EcoMom is giving away a $40 gift card at My Wee View. You can win it, and spend it on bath stuff {the stuff shown above is from EcoMom} or you can use it on whatever else you want! 

EcoMom also has a special 15% gift code that you can use: SBBL104.