Letter Matching with Stickers

After matching letters in the bathtub a couple of weeks ago, I decided to get out some letter stickers and do some more matching. I wrote each of the letters of Trip's name on a half-sheet of cardstock to give him a place to stick the stickers.

He really enjoyed taking the backing off of the foam letter stickers, which I was not expecting. He didn't want any help from me and patiently worked to get the back off of each letter.

I had imagined the stickers being around the letters, but Trip wanted them right on each letter. He didn't get much more than this done before he was distracted and wanted to do something else.

We finished this project the next day and it's now hanging on the door to his room. 

Polka Dot Bath

After several fun baths while Trip's cousin Cooper was here, Trip asks what kind of bath he's having each time I tell him it's time for one. Most of our baths are still regular ones, but I try to have a fun bath for him about once a week. We had a tub of water beads that we had played with quite a few times, so I though we'd try putting them in the bath. I painted some circles on the tub walls with a mixture of shaving cream and washable finger paint and floated some balls in the water.

Trip was very excited to explore this new bath experience. I gave him a small strainer. He enjoyed catching the balls

and collecting water beads.

Then, he started doing something very uncanny, and actually wanted to pose for pictures, saying "polka dooooooots!" 

Then, it was back to playing until the water got too cold.

Ocean Bath

I loved the ocean bath from Growing a Jeweled Rose and set out to make one for Cooper and Trip. I started by boiling a pound of spaghetti in water with green food coloring to make some fun seaweed. I also used the water I boiled the noodles in to color the bath water. In retrospect, I would have used less of the green water so that the blue coloring I put in the bath water would have come out more.

I also painted the tub walls with a mixture of shaving cream and washable finger paint.

The boys were excited to open the door and find an ocean (or fish tank as Trip called it). They were not so sure about the "seaweed," however. Cooper got in first but Trip had to play with the noodles before he would get in the tub.

Once he was in the tub, though, he was all about exploring the spaghetti!

He even started putting it all over himself.

Cooper liked playing with the fish. Watch out for the shark!

They had some fun imaginary play with the fish too, pretending they were a family.

After a while, they were done with the pasta and helped me scoop it out of the water. We collected it and put it in the fridge so that they could play with it in the water table later. I certainly don't advocate wasting food, so if we're going to use food in our activities, we'll get several uses out of it whenever possible.

Once they were done playing, I enlisted the boys' help to clean the walls. I gave them each an old toothbrush and let them scrub away!

This bath was a big success and provided them with about forty-five minutes of fun!

Alphabet Bath

Our alphabet bath was simple but fun after a busy day. I filled the tub with foam letters and a few drops of food coloring.

I also wrote the boys' names and the alphabet on the wall with bath crayons.

It didn't take long for the silliness to start.

Then, some serious work happened too when they started matching the foam letters to the letters on the wall.

Kitchen Bath

Trip's cousin Cooper visited us for ten days. During that time, we had several special baths. The boys thoroughly enjoyed them. Each day, they asked what their bath would be that time.

Our first bath was kitchen-themed. I drew some appliances and a window on the tub walls with bath crayons.

A stool made a nice table in the middle of the tub. I got out some play dishes and we were just about ready.

I put some shaving cream and a little washable finger paint in the bowls and some colored water in the teapots as the finishing touch.

 They got right to playing as soon as their feet hit the water.

They had lots of fun with the shaving cream and colored water.

Mid-way through the bath, the boys were trying to eat the plastic food, so I got them some baby carrots to snack on.

Check back this week to see our other fun baths!