It’s nearly time to say goodbye to one of the most awesome parts of our playroom…the glitter kiddie pool. After 2 years of floating all over our house, it finally has a hole in it. I added this pool to our wishlist when our oldest was born. I figured I would use it to make a cheaper version of those fancy ball pits you see in the beautiful playrooms of Pinterest. As you can see below, it totally worked. We purchased just one pack of 100 balls because they are easier to maneuver so you can help little bums sit down. Now that my oldest is wild and crazy, we could maybe use another set. We always need a second space for storage of the balls though, as we use our pool for a ton of fun throughout the year.
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I’ve been using larger kiddie pools at camp for nearly 17 years. The possibilities are endless. We fill them with water and ice to make “freeze” bases for kickball. I’ve hidden clues to a scavenger hunt in them covered in pudding and or other foods. We make giant bubbles, fill them with orbeez, and even use them to bring sand inside to make sandcastles for our winter beach party. Remembering what I had already been doing for years at camp, I started to use our little pool for awesome developmental activities for our girls.
It started off as a supervised soft toy play/storage center before she really started rolling all over. In it, we had a couple of fabric covered blocks, silicone teethers, and rattles etc.
I then used the pool to make some messy sensory play happen. We made paints out of flour, water, and gel food coloring. I’ve figured out that gel coloring creates the brightest colors for all art and science projects. In the picture I used a plastic table cloth to try to further contain the mess, but honestly it was a terrible idea. We now just spray off messes with water instead.
One of my favorite things we have used the pool for is this jumping activity. Adeline LOVED this jumper I found for $1.87 at a thrift store. I saw a meme of a baby using one in a large storage tub filled with water. We used the pool instead and added some floating toys. Since she was already familiar with her pool and the jumper, she was all about the combination! We did this in the spring and just left the jumper to air dry, and had her in a cloth diaper for easy clean up.
Of course you also can use it as a normal kiddie pool. We brought ours inside from time to time, but don’t tell the husband! Bath bubbles are also a hit if you can use a spray hose. You also can do a night “disco swim” by adding glow sticks and toys water toys with lights. I want to try this in the summer since our girls love their disco baths! We used it as a flamingo “duck pond” for a first birthday party. The party was in December so it was an easy indoor sensory activity for a small pandemic birthday get together.
Most recently we used our pool to have some awesome snow play inside! At camp I’ve done this before with a snow cone machine. We made mini snowmen in each pool. For the girls I just grabbed snow from the porch outside, and found some random bathtub toys and that dinosaur from Target’s dollar spot.
While we have loved this pool, I think we are going to switch it up when purchasing the next one. Amazon has these awesome square baby pools by Intex.
