Inside this post, I’ll share exactly how to do a quick science experiment with water and coloring drops. This is perfect for one-year-olds and toddlers who will be amazed when the drops mix to make magic water!
Ready for some easy fun? Let’s go!
Confession time: how often do you mix food coloring into your kid’s bathtub?
If you’ve already experienced the magic of adding a few food coloring drops to the bath, then you know what I’m talking about. There’s something about the colors that entice kids to jump into the bath with crazy enthusiasm! If you haven’t yet, I can almost see you running to try this at bathtime tonight.
BUT…
I realized that I was making a big mistake with my ‘ole food coloring in the bath trick.
Do you know what I was doing wrong??
We’ll get to that in a minute. But, first, let’s answer a few questions about why you should try this easy baby activity.
One-year-olds and toddlers are engaged by seemingly simple activities. This activity looks very simple, but as you’ll read below, there is A LOT of learning happening in this magic water bin.
All you need is water and food coloring. If your little one isn’t really into this, there’s no real loss. Except a bin or bath ready for play!
Babies and all children learn through their senses. I’m a big fan of open-ended play, which means that there is no end result in mind when you set up an activity. Instead, baby can explore, play, and learn in whatever way they choose. Personally, I set up baby activities because my boys have needed a little prompt or invitation to start playing instead of taking everything out of my kitchen drawers and pulling all of the clean clothes out of my dresser. This gives them a place to investigate and play – I just have to provide a little enticement.
How Can You Invite Babies to do an Activity?
I like to start small with a little bit of water in a bin.
You can see how exactly how I do it over on Instagram and I even have videos of how to do this in my story highlights. You can see all of the baby activities that I’ve done with my son on Instagram, but here are a few activities that I’d start with: q-tip push & sticky grab.
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Okay, now the important part…
What was I missing out on when I added food coloring to my kid’s sensory bin??
I was mixing the color in for them.
I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out, but I realized that if I just dropped a few dabs of food coloring in the water, I could encourage Andy to do the mixing all on his own.
It was Baby Science 101!
- I used phrases like can you mix this?
- And: “look there’s blue and red, now purple!”
- We recently did this with blue and yellow to make a green water bin and Andy even began saying, ‘REEN!
Tons of learning here, friend. And, it’s sooooo easy!
Supplies For This Easy Baby Activity at Home
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- Bin or Bathtub
- Food Coloring (here’s what we recommend on Amazon)
How to Make this Magic Water Bin for Baby
- Drop a few drops of food coloring in a bin or bathtub.
- Ask baby, different questions like: Can you touch the color drop? Ooooh, look at that! Can you mix the colors? etc.
- And, then add toys.
BOOM. That’s it.
I love it when learning and having fun doesn’t have to be complicated, don’t you?!
Need more Inspiration?
I’ve got you covered!
You can see more Baby Activities by clicking on the images below:
