Last week my husband worked late every night, arriving home long after the kids were in bed. After one particularly long day at home with the kids, I offered some water play to slow down the post-dinner frenzy.
Typically after dinner, my kids have a surge in energy and turn into wild and destructive little people. They want to run, jump, push and basically project their bodies into anything that comes their way. This usually begins as I am cleaning up dinner. On this particular night, I decided to let them channel their energy into cleaning with some simple water play.
First, I wiped down the sink with soap and hot water to remove any bacteria. I pulled two step stools up to the sink and gave each child a soapy sponge (I totally buy these heavy duty sponges and these non-scratch sponges in bulk). I filled the sink with warm, soapy water and (mostly) plastic cups, plates and utensils. I asked my kids to scrub the dishes, rinse them off in our large pasta strainer, and then place them in the drying rack.
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So, how did it go? Surprisingly well! The kids really enjoyed the water play and worked together (at least a little bit) to get the job done. My son was also super proud of himself for helping out and couldn't wait to share this with his dad.
There was a bit of a water mess to clean-up after they were done, so I probably won't do this every night. But it was definitely a nice change of pace to the post-dinner chaos.
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