Bubbles! a toddler invitation to play

We started exploring the letter "B" this week with our first "B" theme-- Bubbles!!

Of course, the weather didn't cooperate with my planning (whoops) and we started our Bubbles invitation to play riiiiiight as the weather turned cold and dreary. Ah well. I was kind of hoping to spend more of our time outside with these activities, but they ended up being great ways to keep my two year old busy indoors, as well.

Here's how we played with bubbles this week!!

Books

There were, again, few books about bubbles at our local library. We checked out a couple books about taking baths, and we also looked at some books about cleaning. (These are affiliate links)

The Bubble Factory

Just Me in the Tub

Bubble Trouble

Bubble Bin!

After our Apple Pie Bin, most of the construction vehicles in our home had apple pie cloud dough packed into their nooks and crannies. Into the Bubble Bin they went!

This could not have been a simpler activity. I put a couple squirts of dish soap into our big bin, filled it up with water, added the dirty toys, a couple sponges, a couple dish brushes, and voila.

There were an excess of bubbles in the bin at first (I filled the bin up with our handheld shower head), so Evert first had a great time discovering the construction toys under all those bubbles! Then we started washing up the toys! Great life skills work, and this kept him busy and engaged for more than 30 minutes. The inclusion of some of his most beloved toys really captured his interest.

I don't usually hover while he explores his bins, but water play always carries a risk, so I stuck close during this activity. I got the bathroom cleaned, actually. And, bonus, all the toys were shiny clean when he was done, too.

Bath Bomb Bubbles

I picked up a package of bath bombs at the dollar store and used them for our next activity! While the bubbles were definitely less dramatic than with our bubble bin, Evert had a great time watching closely for the "little bubbles!"

Again, super simple idea. I just used a big open bin and put a tupperware lid on one side and a big bowl on the other. I filled the bowl with water, and added a couple transfer tools- a large spoon, a small spoon, a syringe (a bulb syringe would have been easier to use, but I didn't have an unused one), and a sponge. I set the bath bomb on the tupperware lid (so it didn't roll around as much, and also so the white bath bomb was easier to see).

Super. Simple.

And again, about 20 minutes of independent play time for the two year old. Which meant my bathroom was the cleanest it's ever been.

Blowing Bubbles

Let's face it, this one would have been much more fun outside, but we made it work. We blew bubbles into the shower, but this would also be a fun thing to do while taking a bath!

We used two different bubble containers - a regular kids' one, and also a leftover container of wedding bubbles I had hiding somewhere. Dipping the wands back into the containers were a great fine motor task, and boy did he have a good time blowing those bubbles into the shower, and popping them, too!!

And there you have it! Lots of bubbles, lots of hands-on fun!

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