Indoor Water Fun

Through our many cooking/baking/helping activities, we have learned that Olivia can just lean over and wash her hands in the kitchen sink pretty easily.  This has come in handy when she gets egg or something else on her.

 

The last time we made popsicles, Olivia figured out that she could also play in the water.  She decided to give Ariel a bath.  I plugged up the smaller portion of the sink and she stood there and played for a good twenty minutes before it was time to eat lunch.

Fast forward a week and I saw this cute dish set at the toy store we were checking out.  I didn't want to pay $20 for it, but I definitely stole the idea!

So one morning last week I set up a little station at the sink for Olivia to play with.

I bought a 4 pack of sponges from Target for $1.50.  I gave her 2 of the sponges, a plate, two of her bowls, two of her cups, and her set of dollar store measuring cups from our learning closet.  (Yep.  I have a "learning closet".  Ha!)  I also gave her a little caddy to put the clean dishes.

She started out by just playing in the water while the sink filled up.

This was her first time playing with sponges, so she had a little lesson on how they work.  She got to pick the 2 colors she wanted to use.  She couldn't wait to use them from the moment we bought them!

Ariel joined us for the fun as well.

She got a bath just like Olivia does. ;)

After playing with Ariel for a good bit, she moved on to the cups.

She had a few math lessons along the way without even knowing it.  Like what happens when you put an object in a cup full of water... the object takes up space, so the water is going to overflow.

She practiced her pouring

She also had a lesson/learned about what happens when you pour something from a bigger cup into a smaller cup.

Having so much fun!  She played for over an hour.

 She ended up using everything I gave her to play with except for the plate.

After I drained the water she insisted on stacking everything back up.  She put it all as pictured and then said, "There.  Now it's perfect."  Gah!  I love my little perfectionist and her orderly stacking ways!!! :)