Wet and Wild Water Fun: ideas from the Parent Powerline

Wet and Wild Water Fun: ideas from the Parent Powerline
Saturday, July 15, 2023 by Becky Cerling Powers

Categories: Parent Powerline

Water play for kids In the heat of summer, when our kids were preschoolers, I used to give them cheap hardware paintbrushes and a bucket of water so they could paint with water in the back yard. They spent hours happily “painting” – their playhouse, the cement patio floor, the trunks of the trees…

I did – and still do – the same thing with our grandkids when they visit, and they are just as happy. With them I add sidewalk chalk to the mix for a little variety, and they love washing off the chalk marks they make.

Water painting is wonderful, cheap entertainment for pre-schoolers

It doesn’t require much adult supervision. You just set up the materials, and the little ones find things they want to paint. They’ll spend hours at it, contented, satisfied, and absorbed.

You don’t need to color the water. If little ones decide to paint your fence, the wet part looks different to them from the dry part. And that satisfies them.

And water play isn’t just for the babies. All ages love it.

Here are a few of my kid-tested, summer water fun favorites:

Give kids a squirt bottle filled with water

They can use it to squirt designs on the sidewalk or patio.

Fill a dishpan with plain water for babies and toddlers to splash in.

They can also practice pouring liquid from one container to another.

(Caution: Stay close at hand. A baby can drown in even a couple inches of water.)

Add a few drops of dish detergent to the water.

Then show preschoolers how to shake their hands in it to make it bubbly.

Give them unbreakable pots or plastic bowls for “washing dishes.”

Buy a kiddie pool

Just be sure that preschoolers are always supervised in a kiddie pool.

Let kids cool off in the sprinklers when you water the lawn.

Provide older kids the supplies they need for squirt bottle battles

Save and rinse out empty dish detergent bottles or buy squirt bottles at the hardware store or WalMart. (Homemade squirt bottles last longer than the small squirt guns you can buy, and they squirt more water, too. However, water blasters and pool squirt toys seem to be more durable.)

Warning: Squirt battles require rules. The main two are:

Only outside, and
Only volunteers

That means no squirting in the house or garage, and if your sister says she doesn’t want to play, you can’t squirt her…and she can’t squirt you!

If anyone breaks one of these rules, Mom or Dad takes the squirt bottle away.

Provide supplies for a family water balloon fight.

Buy a few dozen balloons, fill them up with water, load them into wagons or laundry baskets, and let go with a family water fight on the grass portion of your yard. Or at the beach. Or the park.

Let older kids wash the car in swimsuits.

Blow bubbles and chase them.

Either buy or make bubble stuff and bubble wands for your children. (Bubble blowing, like squirt bottle fighting, is strictly an outdoor sport.)

Little kids like to chase and pop the bubbles. Big ones enjoy blowing and connecting them.

You can make your own bubble wands from pipe cleaners, florist wire or any thin household wire.

Here’s the recipe for homemade bubble stuff:

Pour a half cup of dish detergent (Dawn is a particularly successful brand for this) and a quarter cup cooking oil into one and a half cups water. Stir gently before using. Vigorous stirring causes bubble stuff to foam up too much to make good bubbles.

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