Water tables are a fun way to offer new sensory experiences to children. Water tables support physical, emotional and social development as well as helps learning in several growth areas. It encourages motor skills and strengthens coordination and muscle movement. It makes children understand how water works and thus develop science skills. Here are tips to make water table an even more fun addition to your children’s playtime.
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1. SafetyTips
Supervision is a must. Make sure always that children are being supervised while having fun with the water table. Also make sure that the water is changed daily. Keep the play environment clean and safe. Keep the water table dry, clean and covered when it’s not being used.
Let the water be in the water table. If kids want to experiment with some other medium than water, make sure that the other medium stays in the water table. Clean up spills to avoid injuries from slipping and falls. Wearing a smock or bathing suit to change after play is a great idea too.
2. Induce Creativity
Playing with water is a great fun in itself. However, you can make it more enjoyable and induce children’s creativity by adding objects from across the house. These objects include sponges, bowls, brushes, cups, spray bottles and more. You can also try containers with holes, straws and funnels.
3. Encourage Curiosity
Make their brains think by asking them questions like what happens when they do a certain thing or how they feel. However, keep in mind not to make it study-like as children will lose interest in the play with a feeling that you are trying to ‘teach’ them something.
4. Bring a Change
You need not stick to plain water. Some tables feature sand too, like Step2 Direct kids sand and water play table. Even soap can be a great addition because children enjoy bubbles. You can also make your kids play with coloured pasta or rice, dirt, packing peanuts or shaving cream and see what happens.
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5. Play Inside
If climate is not good enough to play outside, bring the water table inside the house. If you don’t want a big mess, choose dry things instead of water, like pasta, beans etc. Offer children measuring cups so that they learn about scooping, filling and pouring. Coloured craft sand is also a great addition in which kids can draw pictures or write alphabets.
6. Encourage Science Learning
With a water table you can encourage science learning in your kids. Many scientific processes can be taught to them through a water table. You should also let them make predictions and experiments to test their theories. But again, don’t let it resemble a study session and let children have pure play fun.At https://www.step2direct.com.au/kickback-soccer-and-hockey-pack has a range of creative water tables to encourage learning.
7. Include Props
You can add many fun props to the water table and they will encourage playful learning. For example, you can add a waterfall, a fountain, toy fish, rubber ducks, toy boats, plastic plants and many such aquatic things to make kids’ playtime more and more fun.
8. Go Offbeat
As your early learners grow out of the water table, go offbeat to involve children in making a new creation. For example, make a butterfly pond or birdbath with aquatic plants and lily pads. Or build a gnome or fairy garden with fresh herbs. This reusing or recycling will teach kids how to preserve and create new out of old.