Soapy bubbly water play

With the warmer weather gradually descending upon us here in Australia, one of our current favourite activities is to head outside for some water play.

It can be as simple as setting out a tub of water with a some containers and toys… to taking things up a notch with a few drops of food colouring or even doing some water painting.

Our latest thing to add to our water play is to add a few squirts of dishwashing soap to turn it into a soapy, bubbly water-play experience. I also add a couple of drops of glycerine (an optional ingredient) which helps the bubbles to hold together much better for a more wonderfully frothy and bubbly effect.

The play kept the children engaged for over an hour… swirling, splashing, scooping, pouring… exploring different ways of creating more bubbles by agitating the water… and even pretending to wash some toy dishes and cups with sponges.

The children enjoyed it so much, I decided to repeat the play experience the following week. This time I added a basket of scrap fabric for the kids to wash. They were very busy all morning, washing all the fabric and meticulously hanging them up on the clothesline.

Such busy, industrious little children.

If only I could get them to do this with real dishes and clothes!