Water play offers so much value and gives your child a great early start to learning through fun hands on play! Here – the founders of Mini Water Adventurers who have just launched a quarterly water play subscription box to help parents and carers get their children used to being in the water – share the benefits of water play for children.
The benefits of water play for children
There are six benefits of water play for children:
- It releases energy – children find water both calming and invigorating. Water play is also emotionally therapeutic as it doesn’t have to be loud and busy, it can be a tranquil activity where children are quietly absorbed in their surroundings and what they’re doing. It’s also a great bonding experience between child and adult as you spend uninterrupted, quality time together.
- It develops motor skills. Water play gives many opportunities to develop gross and fine motor skills across different age ranges.
- It helps to develop social skills. Water play gives many opportunities for children to develop critical social skills; they learn how to listen, follow instructions and give verbal feedback on what they’re experiencing. Children can learn these vital skills in a 121 capacity or even in a group environment with other children and parents.
- It builds language and communication skills and gives children an opportunity to learn from their peers. Water play, and even play in general gives children the opportunity to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions verbally. When children communicate with their peers they’re also able to practice the language skills they have learnt and can even refine their speech through listening to others.
- It promotes cognitive development – water play offers many opportunities for children to solve problems, explore and experiment.
- It stimulates creativity and imagination – water play provides rich and invaluable play experiences to develop and stretch children’s imagination. Children are in control of creating their own stories and narratives and have immense amounts of fun bringing their ideas and imagination to life.
By offering a variety of water-based experiences and letting children follow their own ideas we encourage their natural curiosity. This leads to a whole range of valuable learning, experimenting and discovery.
Water play is something that can be explored from any age and I’d recommend introducing water play into their routine as early as possible.
Where can I explore water play?
You can explore water play inside during bathtime, or you can place a few towels on the floor and fill a container with water to enjoy at any time during the day. Another perfect place to enjoy playing and embracing the water is outside in the paddling pool, weather permitting, as well as when you go to the swimming pool.
If using water play outside during the warmer months, it’s a perfect opportunity to invite friends round for a play date, which further enhances their communication skills and imagination as the children can really bring their stories to life. As children get older, it’s also a great opportunity for parents or peers to allow them to work on their independence by allowing them to play on their own under supervision, rather than needing to be involved in playing with them.
Water play for children: What items do I need before we can start?
There are many items you can use that you’ll already have at home, or you can buy something specifically for water-based play. You’ll be surprised by how creative you can get turning a household item into a play centre!
Some of my favourite items include:
- Bath tub/shower/sink
- A plastic tub
- A heavy duty plastic bucket or container – the ones you use for the laundry or in the garden are a great option, just make sure there aren’t any holes in the bottom!
- Tuff tray
- Washing up bowl – this is best for small babies
- Sensory tray
- Water table
- Paddling pool
- Swimming pool
Is there anything specific I need to buy before trying water play?
Water play is inexpensive and is one of the easiest activities to set up. There are so many items you’ll have lying around the house that you can use, or you can buy items for a reasonable price online, in your local craft stores, or even from places like Facebook Marketplace. If you’re also feeling creative and resourceful there’s stuff you can make yourself too.
What age groups is water play suitable for?
Water play can be enjoyed by all ages and I’d always recommend introducing water-based play to babies as early as possible to help create that bond between parent and child, but also to allow them to benefit from the calming and nurturing elements of the water. As they get older you can bring in objects that will help them on a sensory level that will develop their sight, scent and touch. As long as their regular toys are waterproof you can use them during water play activities too – but things such as body puffs and sponges are great to start with.
The beautiful thing about water play is that you can introduce absolutely anything into it to make it a unique experience. If you have older children then they can still benefit from water play by getting involved with their younger siblings, further cementing their bond with each other, but also enhancing their water play experience.
As busy parents it can be tough to create new and engaging ideas for water-based play, so there are 20 themed water play ideas that you can bring to life today:
- Dinosaur swamp
- Under the sea
- To infinity and beyond (space)
- Tea party
- Construction
- Monster mayhem
- On the farm
- Pet store
- Knights and princesses
- Pom Pom fun
- Seasonal Surprises
- All we need is love (Valentines)
- Mothers Day
- Spring Garden
- Easter delight
- Summer holidays
- Autumn changes
- Halloween
- Bonfire night
- Winter wonderland
- Santa’s workshop
Here are 10 of these themes in more detail:
Dinosaur Swamp
Items you’ll need:
- Dinosaur toys
- Rocks, leaves, grass, small twigs, bark from trees, small logs (find outside)
- Buckets & nets
- Cups & sprinkle cups
The logs and bark make great places for the dinosaurs to stand on and stomp around on – like little islands.
The grass adds a great sensory experience with them moving it around in the water or picking up handfuls and placing it on the dinosaurs, using it for hair or covering their bodies for hiding/camouflage.
It’s is brilliant for small world play as the children love making up stories, taking the dinosaurs on journeys and making sound effects of stomping and thrashing or “roaring” and “grrr’ing”.
For toddlers, they will love transferring the water and other items into a bucket or sprinkling water over the dinosaurs to wash them.
Bonus: You can even add frozen eggs with mini dinosaurs inside to excavate them.
This theme appeals to all little people, toddlers and the older children up to 7 years old.
Under the sea
Items you’ll need:
- Variety of marine life animals
- Shells
- Blue water beads
- Seaweed (plastic ones used in fish tanks)
- Pebbles or small rocks (can be found outside)
- Buckets & nets
- Kitchen items (funnel, cups, small containers)
You can create a really cool underwater effect by placing a bath mat on the bottom of the bath, or placing it at the bottom of a bucket. If you don’t have a bath mat, smooth glass pebbles create the same effect. Using a variety of marine life animals adds different shapes, colours and textures to playtime. You can use different varieties of fish, whales, dolphins or turtles.
Adding rocks, pebbles and seaweed enhances the small world play.
You can even use green and blue food colouring for added fun.
Tea Party
Items you’ll need:
- Tea set with tea pot, tea cups & saucers, milk jug and sugar jar
- Dessert tray with different yummy treats
- Plastic plates
- Figures or dolls or animals
- Relaxing tea bags
- Tongs
Having a tea party is SO much fun and it’s brilliant for children of all ages. Children love transferring the water from the teapot into the cups, as well as pretending to take your order before serving you. Adding some calming tea bags or rose petals enhances the sensory experience by adding beautiful smells too.
Using the tongs helps with their motor skills so you could add some sugar cubes or have some ice cubes in a bowl to add to the tea.
They can even write the menu which is building on other learning skills.
There are some lovely songs that can be sung with this theme as well, such as, “I’m a little teapot” or “Polly put the kettle on.”
Monster Mayhem
Items you’ll need:
- 3D bath rocket puzzle
- Sensory balls (orbs)
- Monster bath toys
- Sensory monsters
- Monster feet
- Ice tray & googly eyes
- Food colouring
Monster ice cubes will need to be made before this activity so that they’ve got time to freeze. To make them, simply add a drop of food colouring in each ice cube section, then add the googly eyes (or you can add coloured spaghetti too which adds to the sensory experience) then pour in water and freeze overnight.
The monster and rocket bath toys add to the small world play. The spikey and textured sensory balls act as orbs.
White ping pong balls make great eyes too (use a black marker pen to draw an eyeball).
Construction
Items you’ll need:
- Big sponges
- Diggers
- Cut up noodles (sticks) or use real sticks
- Tin foil balls to create boulders, or you can use real stones from the garden
- Plastic/ wooden tool kit with hard hat and goggles
- Mini construction vehicles
- Foam building blocks or lego building blocks
This is a popular sensory play activity on dry land as well as in water. You can add food colouring and foam for additional sensory experience or to add to the storyline of “muddy” trucks.
The sponges are absolutely great as they are used as building blocks but also as a way of transferring water. Squeezing the water is great for building the strength in the child’s hands too.
Using natural items such as sticks and stones are great for outdoor water play. Or, if you’re playing during bath time, you can create boulders by scrunching up balls of tin foil, or cut up swimming pool noodles as a fun replica.
Pom pom fun
Items you’ll need:
- Different sizes and coloured pom poms
- Scoops
- Containers
Pom pom balls are absolutely awesome as they soak up the water and the children can squeeze them, scoop them or pour them. It is so colourful and you can get pom poms that are sparkly too.
This is such an easy activity to set up and the children will enjoy playing for a very long time.
Putting the pom poms inside water balloons and freezing them is also a great addition.
After play time the pom poms can be dried and reused again and again.
Supervision is required at all times as the pom poms can be a choking hazard.
Spring Garden (this is the theme of the Spring Bizi Box subscription box available from Mini Water Adventurers)
Items you’ll need:
- Frog toy
- Flower heads
- Green water beads
- Lilly pads
- Watering can
- Plastic Flowers/insects
- Green bath bomb
- Small plastic container
Drop the bath bomb into the bath and watch in wonder as the water turns green. Add the lily pads into the water along with the frog toy and flower heads. Watch their little faces light up with joy as they discover the different textures and bring their imagination to life, placing flower heads on the frogs sitting on the lily pads. The fizz of the bath bomb creates sensory fun, stimulating sight, sound and smell. Use the watering can to transfer the water around the bath, or encourage them to do so.
Children thoroughly enjoy this open-ended play.
This theme also provides learning opportunities as you can talk to your children about the life cycles of frogs and insects and the flowers start to bloom at the start of Spring. You can even use this to create an activity the following day where they find different flowers in the garden.
Mother’s Day
Items you’ll need:
- Artificial flowers or pick some real flowers
- Plastic vases
- Watering can
- Kitchen utensils (spoons, ladles, colander, small pots and pans)
- Containers
Using petals and different flowers is a beautiful activity. Add the petals to the water with some cups and measuring jugs to make a flower sensory soup. Not only will the children love the smells but they will enjoy exploring the textures and colours by pulling the petals off and smashing them and creating a very flowery potion.
Freezing the petals or flowers is a lovely way to investigate the properties of water too.
This theme can be used on Valentine’s Day too.
Easter Delight
Items you’ll need:
- Bunny feet
- Bunny balloons
- Eggs & Basket
- Mini chicks or rabbits
- Carrots & Mini sweets
When it comes to Easter activities for children, using plastic eggs, bunnies and chicks is a no-brainer. The children love them! It’s great to pair them with some bunny balloons, bunny feet (which you can make with craft foam), carrots (you can make these from polystyrene foam) and any other Eastery items.
The eggs are a fabulous item to explore and play with as they can scoop, pour or put other small items inside.
Adding scented water beads is a great addition to the sensory experience.
Summer Holidays (this is the theme of the Summer Bizi Box subscription box available from Mini Water Adventurers)
Items you’ll need:
- Ice cream cones
- Sponge bombs (made with cut up sponges and tied together)
- Bucket and spade
- Fishing net
- Shells
- Colourful water beads or blue stone nuggets
- Foam (make your own or store bought)
- Additional: add sand or edible sand
A beach sensory play and small world water play is fantastic and perfect to keep the little ones entertained for a good amount of time. The play is endless and it is a great way of bringing the beach home instead of heading out to the beach.
It can be enjoyed in the bath or outside in a paddling pool.
Suitable for toddlers up 5/6 years old, although even older children will enjoy it too.
As well as having many benefits to mind and body, as well as helping children to explore and use their imagination, water play is a fantastic way to build up their strength, stamina and independence, as well as their confidence in the water.
The beautiful thing is that any adult can join in the fun, so why not get grandparents and childminders involved in the action too!
Bonus idea: Build a backyard water park
There’s nothing better for a kid on a hot summer day than a waterpark. Of course, you still have to work, but why not build your own waterpark right in your own garden? It’s easier to beat the heat this summer without all the lineups, admission fees, traffic, and overpriced hot dogs. Check out this guide on how to build you own backyard water park.
Helen Huges is a swimming instructor with over 27 years experience and is also the co-founder of Mini Water Adventurers, a water-based business that she set-up with her sister Kathryn during 2020.
Placing a huge emphasis on the benefits of water-based play, Helen & Kathryn have also created a seasonal subscription box for those parents who prefer to have everything delivered through their door, making more time for family water-based fun.
More information about the BIZI Box subscription can be found on https://www.epicbizibox.com/ and more information about Mini Water Adventurers can be found on www.miniwateradventurers.com
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