Sensory Fun in The Bath

I'm excited to be taking part in the 31 day sensory play challenge hosted by Emma at Adventures of Adam. Each day for the month of January Emma will be basing her sensory play around a different object each day. For 31 days she will be blogging about their sensory play adventures and today I get to join in and share with you about Sensory Fun in the Bathtub!

Those of you who are regulars will already know how much I love creating themed baths for my daughters. One of the reasons I love bath time with my girls is because of the simple sensory benefits-I love that something which is necessary to clean our bodies can also be an opportunity to play and learn!

 (Yes, if you're wondering I set this up on our sink to take a picture as my girls' 'bath' is actually a laundry tub and there was no place to put the bottles!)


I thought of many different bath activities to share with you but decided to stay simple and show you an activity I do with the girls in the bath (and shower too!) on nights where I am just too tired to even think. It's through this bathtime activity and sensory exploration that Bubbles learned how to mix colours and that Squiggles' is now learning the same.

What you need:
Two squeezy bottles
Red and Blue food dye (you could also use yellow)
Peppermint Essence (or whatever you have in the cupboard)
Vanilla Essence (or whatever you have in the cupboard)
Bath/shower
A dirty child
Water

How to play:
1. Fill your bath as per normal.
2. Fill the squeezy bottles with cold water.
3. Add a few drops of blue food dye to one squeezy bottle*
4. Add a few drops of red food dye to one squeezy bottle*
5. Add a few drops of peppermint essence to the red squeezy bottle
6. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to the blue squeezy bottle
7. Fill both bottles with cold water
8. Hand one bottle at a time to your child allowing them to fill the bath tub completely with one colour before adding the next
9. Talk to your child about the sensation of the cold and warm water
10. Talk to them about what they can see/hear/touch/smell

Just a note:If you add too much food dye your child's skin WILL stain. The water should be coloured enough that you can see the dye but when you squeeze the water out of the bottle it should appear translucent. I always test the water on my own skin before giving it to the girls after learning the hard way!

Be prepared to fill the bottles again and again. This is not only a fantastic sensory learning experience it's also a great fine motor activity for building up those muscles your little one will one day need to write.

Be sure to jump on over to Adventures of Adam to see how Emma and Adam had sensory fun in the bath:

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.