Washing the water table is almost as fun as playing with it

Elizabeth's warm-weather hack is fun, saves time, and teaches skills:

We have a water table that my 4 and a half year old loves, but we also don't have much storage so it sits outside year round and gets pretty grubby. On the first hot day of the year, I pulled it out to the driveway, gave my son a new sponge, some dish soap and a hose. After he was done with the table, he proceeded to give a bath to all of the toys that went along with it. He had a blast getting soaked & playing in the bubbles and it took one chore off my list!

Bonus Hack: If you're having an outdoor party & don't have enough coolers, fill a water table with some ice and water, then load it up with beverages. It keeps the drinks cold and it gets a laugh out of the parents. Note: this probably won't work if there are little kids at the party - I know mine would be very unhappy to see us "borrow" his toy!

Related:
Talk amongst yourselves: How to make a sand and water table
Fill baby's high chair tray with water for warm weather splashing

Comments

[Jennifer]

Another FABULOUS cleaning tool instead of regular soap is shaving cream! It is loads of fun and cleans better than any soap out there. We use it on everything: children's chairs, tables, toys, etc...

[Jill in Atlanta]

We went to a dinosaur birthday party and one of the games was to "excavate" small plastic dinosaurs from the sand table. The same mom had filled it with cocoa puffs (less dirty toddler "dirt") and toy bugs the year prior- and given bug jars as the "goodie bag"

[sarah]

the party idea is good, i've seen people use blow up pools for ice chests too. I think my kids would love the novelty of it.