Blog Intro

This summer went even faster than it has any other season. I could swear that I just started potty training my son a week ago when it has actually been two and a half months! It has been a hot one this year so there were a lot of opportunities to make sure we were cool enough by using water outside. Here are some of my favorite activities having to do with water play that we used this summer (and can still use for a couple more months).

1. Simple water hose play. It isn’t often that you see kids simply having a water hose and nothing else. I think it has to do with the fact that most of us believe that our kids need bigger and better things. My kids LOVE having charge of the hose and could play with it for hours! They also loved to wash their bikes, toys, sidewalk, etc. Simple, fun, effective.

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2. Sprinkler fun. Another activity that isn’t used quite as much as it used to be. My kids got muddy and soaked playing in the sprinkler and bonus points for the fact that because they were running back and forth, they were exhausted! It was so much fun to watch them enjoy something I used to love doing when I was a kid.

3. Splashpad fun. Is money tight but you want to get the kids away from home for a bit? Find a free splashpad in your area. This is one of my favorite things to do with the kids because not only do they get to be out and about and have some water fun, but they always end up making new friends too. Water play brings kids together.

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4. Swimming. This year my daughter took swim classes and has really enjoyed learning something new. We didn’t get to the pool a ton but the kids always enjoyed splashing around, jumping, and pretending to be sea creatures.

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5. Watering can fun. My husband is really big on gardening and has involved the kids a lot this summer in the prepping, maintaining, and picking of the garden. They discovered a love of watering the plants and flowers and are excited to fill up their watering cans over and over only to empty them.

6. Water blob fun. The water blob was one of my absolute favorite activities this summer. You can read about my process here. It took a lot of time and effort but the kids talked about it a lot and could play on it for hours and hours.

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7. Water slide fun. Another activity that I described in detail here and the kids loved. We typically paired the water slide and the water blob together so that each kid could be doing something different if they wanted to. They also enjoyed sliding onto the water blob. So easy and so fun!

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8. Muddy puddle fun. We are HUGE on muddy puddles here and I frequently let them jump in them. There is just something so freeing and lovely about kids in puddles. However, it has been extremely dry here this summer so we often would take out the hose and create puddles for them to jump in. That often turned into making mud pies which I always promptly denied a taste.

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9. Water balloon/Water gun fun. There is just something about water balloons and water guns that make most kids giddy. This was always a family activity and the kids were thrilled to have Mom and Dad join in the fun.

10. Bathtub fun. The fun doesn’t have to end outdoors. I often would take the filthy, muddy, grassy kids inside to the bathtub/shower and let them take in their water guns. It took it to a completely different level for them and made it even more difficult to get them out!

Friends, it really doesn’t take a whole ton of stuff to make our kids happy. The simpler, the easier = the best.

What type of water activities are your/your kids’ favorite? Did you spend a lot of time in water this summer?

Much love,
<3 Jamie