Kiddie Pool Fun

About 2 months ago, I got a little baby pool from Family Dollar for $8.  Summer's almost over, and we've only used it once.  Why? Because I really don't care for sitting outside by the pool and watching them waddle around for hours.  Today I joined them & we had so much fun together. 

We started out stomping, splashing, and cupping water on each other. We even shot some bubble guns.  I used this opportunity to practice counting with them: we'd stomp once or splash nine times. When you're in the water fun & education can go hand-in-hand, but splashing got old to me after five minutes (my attention span is short).

So I pulled out the baking soda, and let them dump it in the water.  If the oohs weren't satisfying enough, the squeals and giggles from when I added the vinegar were! I explained to them that we were inside a chemical reaction (which is science) that we called "fizz".  They understood that the water had changed; that was good enough for me.  This was so gratifying and intense, but very short lived.  The 20 seconds were definitely worth it though. 

After that excitement died down, I grabbed the food coloring to keep our water party going. My plan was too pour them in different sections of the pool to review colors, and slowly mix them to make colors. What actually happened, the boys got really excited, and I let them go rogue with the bottles. But they loved the colored water! Put some dish detergent in the mix, and... COLORED BUBBLES!  What kid doesn't love bubbles...especially if they're red?!  Mine love them so much they kicked me out the pool; They said they needed room to play (whatever). 

I was pretty psyched to find that the kiddie pool is actually pretty versatile: it can be as educational or fun as you want it to be. You can mix colors, test your sailboats, fish for shapes, do what we did (which I highly suggest), or anything else. It's really not a bore if you add to it.  And it's pretty easy on the wallet; that's always a plus.  We will probably be going outside again tomorrow.