Two Pools to Celebrate Australia Day

Crystal Underwood from Growing a Jeweled Rose is one of my all time favourite bloggers. I first discovered her when she and Rebekah from The Golden Gleam were doing their Messy Play in the Bath and Sink series. Golden Gleam's Bugs and Dirt in the Sink and Growing a Jeweled Rose's Jello Ocean were the very first messy play activities I did with Bubbles and that series is what opened the door to messy play in our house, it allowed me to let go of my dislike of getting dirty and really encourage Bubbles to explore with all her senses. Since then I've branched out to all types of messy play and will quite happily sit back and watch as Bubbles splashes in muddy puddles, so thank-you for that Crystal and Rebekah.

 Whilst following along with the Messy Play in the Bath and Sink series I discovered Crystal's amazing baths and bathtime has never quite been the same at our place since. I began by copying or at least modifying Crystal's ideas but eventually branched out with baths of our own and recently I realised that most if not all of those bath ideas can also be used to brighten up a paddling pool too. So after that massive introduction, I'd like to share with you two pools we've had this week as part of our lead up to Australia Day, an Aboriginal Flag pool and a Koala pool.

Originally I tried to do an Australian flag pool but I just couldn't quite get it right so I opted for an Aborignal Flag instead. To make this pool I filled the paddling pool with water and added about 6 drops of red food dye on one side and 6 drops of black food dye on the other. Once the colours had drifted accross the pool (a process which had bothe Bubbles and Squiggles transfixed) I placed a yellow frisbee in the centre. The pool only stayed two colours for a very short period of time before it mixed to a dark red but it was a great way to open up dialogue with Bubbles about the first people of Australia. The girls then played in the pool as they normally would-splashing each other and tipping water into cups and through funnels.

Over the last week or so Bubbles has been collecting gumnuts each time we walk to the park, this has resulted in rather a large collection of gumnuts just lying around at our place. I was trying to come up with ways to play with them and as it was yet another scorcher of a day, I thought why not use them in the pool? Bubbles and I talked about it and decided to make a Koala Pool, we added a few drops of black food  dye to try and make the pool a grey colour although it looked more blue than anything else and then we added the gumnuts and a few leaves from a tree in our front yard (not a gum tree but Bubbles didn't mind). Rather than play with her normal pool toys Bubbles decided to get her fishing net and catch all of the gumnuts-she had lots of fun catching them all, throwing them back in the water and then catching them again. Squiggles thought it was hilarious when the gumnuts were thrown in the water and had lots of fun throwing them in herself.

How are you planning on celebrating Australia Day this year?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  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.