Beating the Bathtime Boredom

I'll admit it. I have been a slacker in keeping my kids clean. I mean, they aren't walking around in complete filth, but it has been a few days since their last bath. When the weather gets colder, they aren't outside splashing in the mud puddles or sweating all day. The most that happens is that they get some paint or cookie dough on them which is easily wiped off. Plus, with more evening activities that have popped up lately, I just don't have it in me for the bath, brush teeth, pj, books, bed routine in it's entirety several nights a week. So...today, we got creative.

This Sunday was a day that needs to happen every now in again for us to recharge our batteries. Nothing on the schedule. We lounged in our pajamas all morning. The children built 'machines' out of cardboard boxes and tape, played pretend the laundry baskets, and read some books in between my laundry, craft projects, and writing while drinking coffee. It got to be about 10am and they were getting a bit stir crazy. We were at the point where I would normally say on cold days like today, "Okay...we need to get out of the house for awhile. Who wants to go play at the mall play area?" But...it's a couple weeks before Christmas. Which means I do NOT go in the mall with children on the weekend. Period. So, I proposed a wacky solution. "How about we do things kind of backwards and you take a bath in the morning?" You would have thought I suggested that they eat ice cream for dinner based on how excited they were. I sweetened the deal by offering to let them paint with colored shaving cream on the shower walls AND to make it a bubble bath. They were in the bathroom and undressed within two seconds. (Which is completely opposite of how I normally have to beg, plead, or make getting ready for bath a competition to get them in there most nights.)

What happened next? An hour of pure, creative, engaged wonder and learning.

Shaving Cream and Food Coloring mixed in a Muffin Tin

We started by adding the shaving cream to each section, then I added blue, red, and yellow food coloring. I used one drop for the top row, two for the second, and three for the third. Then I mixed it up and gave them each a paint brush. As they dipped their paint brushes in and created art on the shower walls, we discussed many concepts such as light, medium, dark; which two primary colors mixed together make each secondary color; what happens when you paint under water; and they used their brushes to make different shapes, letters, and numbers. Although I enjoyed getting this "academic" talk in, they mostly enjoyed the process of watching the shaving cream drip down the side of the wall, reaching up high and down low to paint on a big surface, and painting on themselves and their baby dolls. We even discussed Jackson Pollack, an artist that we had studied a little before. They were able to try splatter painting like they had seen Pollack do in the YouTube video they had watched. (I pulled the shower curtain closed on that one...) After about thirty minutes, the water was getting cold and they were ready to get out.

Discussing color mixing, Jackson Pollack, and which hair color their babies should have.

The morning continued on in it's active play, with the Littlest One taking his baby doll into his room and pretending to put him to sleep and the Biggest One spending another twenty minutes pretending with cars in the shower. There was no nagging, no warning of time limits, no persuading...just simple, open-ended play for the fun (and cleanliness) of it. And for this Mama, it was one of those moments which made my heart feel full of magic and pure love.

Namaste~