How to Make Your Bathtub Fun for Indoor Play

My toddler enjoys nothing more than going wild with her colours and getting messy with paints and sensory play. With our apartment split up into her different zones to accomodate our work and her online lessons, keeping a tidy home can be hard with such a vivacious little personality.  

Lockdown days can make one kid seem like you have three

If you already have done your share of cooking with your toddler and painting, here is an alternative idea you can explore to keep things new and exciting and getting that 25-35 minutes of just monitoring your little energizer bunny while you scan your WeChats to keep track of COVID happenings, or latest places to get fresh veggies.

Bath Like a Raver

In 2020 when the first round of compound lockdowns began, juggling work and a kid and cleaning was a completely new concept, my themed baths worked like a charm. I got LED ice cubes, glow in the dark dinosaurs and had a full on mini-party in the bath with bubbles and my favourite club tunes (the friendly versions). Of course with all the excitement, we would do this in the late afternoon so she got excited, hungry and then slept. Perfect formula for an energetic kid.

We stacked, sang and splashed. The beauty of it, is its in the bathroom. I can always do an easy mop up after.

Pompoms are also a great idea to make bath fun. Swim with the colorful balls and just toss them in the dryer after (or outside on your balcony to get the balls dry). Just put the pompoms in the bathtub and let the kid enjoy. 

Paint the walls

Bathrooms have tiles. It works beautifully with washable paints (I used Crayola washable markers and paints). I would paint some simple figures and we would take our markers or paint brushes and add on to things.

And the fun part is washing it off. Works great if you just want an indoor activity, or to make bathtime fun.

Note: If you have your kid in the bath to play, be sure you exercise caution especially if they are not old enough to be in the water unassisted. If that is the case, you can still let them play inside but without the water.

Food Colouring Squirt Game

Lately my toddler has enjoyed mixing. I take my food colouring and mix it with water and let her fill up a syringe (the ones doctors would give to administer medicine). We would spray it on the tiles and get different colours to go on the walls and watch how the colours mix. 

Yellow plus blue creates green! Every few minutes I would rinse the walls and we would have a go again. This activity does not require her to get into the tub, so she would stay outside and just spray. All you gotta do as the parent is turn the shower head on occasionally and wipe the wall canvas dry.

What are some of the activities you enjoy doing at home?