Young children love to play with water. Inside, they enjoy filling the sink with water and playing with dish soap bubbles or washing their play dishes. Their child size kitchen play takes on a new dimension when they can fill their cups, teapots and pans with water.
During the summer the options for water play open up. There are always the usual opportunities like playing in small pools, running through the sprinklers and playing with water guns.
Our children never tire of playing with water balloons. They do not simply lob the balloons at one another (although this is what occurs most of the time particularly as the older children get involved). Younger kids enjoy filling the water balloons. They always need help tying them. Then they float them in their little pools and create games centered around the water balloons. Our children have occupied several afternoons defending their fortress (play equipment) while the enemy attempted to overtake them… all with the assistance of water balloons as their weapons of choice.
One terrific water activity for younger children is ”painting”. I equip my little ones with a buckets of water and large inexpensive paint brushes and I send them off to paint. They, then, proceed to paint everything in sight: their play equipment, bikes, toys, outdoor furniture, garage doors, the barn and even their father’s tractor. This is an innocent, harmless, cool and relatively clean activity that keeps children busy and content for hours. They absolutely love it.
During the warm, summer days water play can be an easy, terrific activity. You can enjoy playing with your children right in your own backyard.
“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language.” – Henry James
“Painting” sounds like a great idea. My children adore water, too, and they already like to “paint” with brushes and imagination. With water it would be even more real.