The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Multi-Sensory Bath Times!

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If you follow me on Facebook you may remember I posted a while back about the pink bath that I gave the girls one day! And I wondered how I had never thought of something so simple and fun before?!

                            

Well, since that day, we’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with colours and flavours to add to our baths! We tried mixing green food colouring with eucalyptus and menthol oils! The bath smelt amazing and was great for opening up their airways and easing their colds a little.

                            
Then we tried purple food colouring and added lavender oils! The girls both smelt absolutely wonderful that evening.

     
And we added orange food colouring with vanilla flavouring. The whole bathroom smelt like a sweet shop. Mmmmm, delicious! 
We have also tried pink colouring with strawberry flavouring and blue colouring with peppermint!

The colouring does NOT stain the skin or the bath. It just washes straight down the plug, no problem! (You may want to test first if you are worried.)

Besides adding a lot of fun it was also a feast for the senses and provoked lots of chat and questioning from 2 year old C. Using coloured water also makes the water play much more interesting as the water can be seen inside clear plastic bottles and is wonderful to watch as it pours and sprinkles from various toys and containers!

Have you ever tried making bath time more exciting? What did you do?

This activity is good for:
* exploring the world using all of the senses
* messy/ sensory play
*early maths:  exploring capacity by filling and emptying containers and talking about full/ half full/ empty
* early literacy: descriptive language development- describing how something looks and smells and what it reminds you of eg “this bath smells like sweeties!”

Comments

  1. Messy Kids says

    OMGosh! Have you ever read the book Kid Tea? Your colored baths remind me of that book! Michael used to love it! We borrowed it from the library but I so need to buy it!

  4. Anonymous says

    My kids have light skin and my daughter has light hair, does the coloring stay on their hair/skin?

  5. Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

    Hi Anon! I have just gone back to answer that question as it was pretty silly of me not to mention it! I have found that NONE of the colours used so far have stained anything! We used liquid food colouring and in some cases used quite a lot, but it didn’t even stain the wash cloths. If you are worried maybe try a but in the sink first? My older girl is quite pale with fair hair and we had no probs. BTW we haven’t tried red and I know that’s a strong colour. Maybe try a different one first!

  10. Erica says

    My girls would love this, I had a molton brown bath salt that turned the water green and she has asked for a green bath ever since. Will try it tomorrow.

  13. Gina says

    This looks great! I need to buy some oils ASAP! I have vanilla…do you need a lot to make the aroma strong?
    I love how you add what the activity is good for at the end of the post…it reminds me that I need to start doing that more often in my blogs.
    Thanks for the great ideas!

  20. Anonymous says

    Have you tried glow sticks in the bath? It’s a lovely light sensory experience as the water glows. Of course, the best effect is with the lights dimmed or off. I found night lights in the electrical outlets gave off enough light for safety while you watch your little ones.

  21. Anonymous says

    I think my kids would absolulty love this but I have 1 question could the cause UTIs???? with the food couloring.

  22. Anonymous says

    This is great im always looking for fun things to do with my 2 year old she loves trying new things!! red bath here we come!!