Lemonade Themed Water Play

Lemonade Themed Water Table by guest blogger Victoria

Hello Mom Favorites readers! I’m Victoria, I’m a stay at home mother of two beautiful little girls, Squiggles (18 months) and Bubbles (3.5years).  My girls and I love exploring and learning together, and I enjoy blogging about some of our experiences on my blog, Squiggles and Bubbles. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to share our lemonade themed water play idea with you today.

Before I go any further, please allow me to remind you that it is imperative that as parents we actively supervise our children around water at all times. Drowning is the greatest cause of accidental death in children under five in Australia.  Each week, on average, one child drowns.

When playing with water, consider the “Do the Five” with Kids Alive.  This program educates the public on five important steps to reduce the risk of preschool drowning. Please click on over (just click the words Kids Alive) and familiarise yourself with how you can reduce the risk of drowning in your household.
Now that we know how to be safe, let’s move on!  The idea for this pool came to me when I discovered several of the lemons my mum had gifted me about to go off.  Unsure of what to do with them (I had already made more lemon butter than we or our friends and neighbours could possibly eat), I decided to make some homemade lemonade.
Bubbles’ had zero interest in tasting the fruits of my labour but instead begged to play in the pool. Then it hit me I could add a few lemons to the pool, for a nice, summery theme.

To make the pool I simply filled the pool with water, added two thinly sliced lemons, a tray of ice cubes and half a packet of paper straws (left over from Bubbles’ birthday party).

At Bubbles request, I also gave the girls two glasses, two bowls and a spoon. It didn’t take long for Bubbles to get scooping and fill the glasses and bowls up. She then discovered that the lemon slices had a neat little hole which she could use to thread them on to the straws. Squiggles on the other hand had fun exploring the new taste of lemon-which she loved!
As the straws were too big for the bowls, I grabbed a pair of scissors (taking the girls inside with me-please, please, never leave your kids unsupervised in the water!) and cut a straw in half. The scissors brought a whole new dimension to our play-Bubbles got busy strengthening her fine motor skills by cutting up all the straws (to my dismay) and filled the icecube tray up with water and straws.

When Squiggles and Bubbles were finished playing, I rescued what straws I could and placed all the lemon slices in a Tupperware container and reused them that night in the bath.

Thanks so much for letting me share our simple exploration with you, I hope you’ll join me over at Squiggles and Bubbles to hear about our other play explorations!

Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play especially when water is concerned.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you’re infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child’s temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

**************************

Victoria is the author of Squiggles and Bubbles, a simple kids activities blog where she shares the play activities and recipes she explores with her girls. You can join in the fun on Facebook or Pinterest.