DIY Fun in the Tub Kit

My kids love to play in the bathtub. Over the years, we've hit on a few fun bath time activities besides bubble bath and rubber duckies. I thought I'd share them here in the form of a DIY fun in the tub kit. This would make a fun gift for any kiddo, although if they aren't your own kids, you might have to explain to their mommy what some of the uses are.

Shaving cream: To be used as "snow" for the tub toys, or to draw/practice letters/write words. This has been one of my son's favorite activities since he was a toddler. It goes without saying that you have to keep them from ingesting shaving cream, or getting it in their eyes, but if they're little, you're right there watching them anyway. (This has never been an issue for us. I'm just saying.)

Food coloring: We've only recently stumbled onto this, but it's a hit with both kids. Originally it started out as a Pokemon thing for L. He wanted to bring his "fire type Pokemon" in the tub, and so we dyed the water red, to represent "lava". It's also been an opportunity to practice color mixing.

Fun Foam: You can buy a whole package of small sheets of fun foam at the Dollar Tree. For a younger child, you may have to cut the bath toys out for them, like I did here and here. An older child could draw and cut out their own toys. The foam will float, and also stick to the side of the tub.

Melt and pour soap with toys in it: Pretty self explanatory. M&P soap is easy, easy, and the kids love it when you embed toy bugs and worms in them. (I was a little heavy handed with the food coloring in the egg shaped soap in the picture. You can't see the plastic ants inside.)

Bubble bath: pretty standard, but it makes for a neat effect when the red bathwater becomes "bubbling lava," or the bubbles become "clouds" in the dyed blue bath water.

My kids have been having lots of fun in the tub lately, and it sometimes buys me 30 minutes of relative peace to read a magazine or talk on the phone to my mom while I supervise. Can't complain about that.