The Perfect Toy

As this issue of Babybug suggests, water might just be the perfect toy: clean, inexpensive, and readily available, it can be played with in many different ways. It encourages the understanding of concepts such as empty and full, wet and dry, sink and float; it's soothing and relaxing, and it promotes coordination.

Indoors, all it takes is a plastic dishpan of water, some towels or throw rugs that can be tossed in a clothes dryer, and a plastic smock or old raincoat for your child to wear. Outdoors, visit a puddle after a rain shower, or fill a shallow wading pool with warm water. (Be sure to stay nearby and to empty the pool when playtime is over.)

Learning Possibilities

Join your child in pouring and poking, sailing and sinking, emptying and filling. Before you know it, you'll have any number of interesting ideas floating around. Does a leaf sink? How about a pebble? What happens when you try to give the pebble a ride on the leaf? You might not be using the terms buoyancy or surface tension as you play together, but your child will be exploring and building an early understanding of these concepts.

Even a younger baby who simply enjoys splashing the water or watching it run through her fingers is learning how unique liquids are. To a baby, patting water produces a result astonishingly unlike patting a floor: the harder she pats it, the more exciting the experiment becomes. When a baby tries to hold water in her fist, it slips away. Your child may notice that water is transparent, but unlike glass or plastic, she can put her hand right through it.

Sometimes the simpler the play materials, the more potential they have to support your child's development. Water, in almost any form, is awash with opportunities for learning and fun.

Play Together

There is no right or wrong way to play with water. Young children enjoy and thrive on repetition. They like to try something over and over until they thoroughly understand it. Then they use that understanding to learn even more.

Try one of these water play activities that are based on selections from this issue of Babybug.

• If your toddler is interested in trying to make things float, give him a small plastic dog to play with in the water. Add a lightweight piece of wood for the dog to ride on and he'll be able to play out "Little Puppy at the Lake."
• Just as Kim and Carrots do, pretend the floor is the sea, and the cushions are steppingstones. Or, pretend that the grass is water, and the sidewalk is a bridge over it. Careful! Don't get wet!
• You don't have to take a cruise to play a "Caribbean Counting Rhyme." Count aloud what your child is playing with in the water. It can be as simple as "One red cup, two little hands, and three red boats." It takes a long time for children to make the connection between number words and objects. Chanting numbers during play helps them become familiar.
• When your child is ready to get out of the wading pool, lake, or bathtub, play "Sleepy Otter." Mother otters really do cradle their babies much as humans do, except that rather than use a fluffly towel or warm blanket, the mother otter wraps kelp or seaweed around both of them so they won't drift apart.