Here's a super easy and fun bath activity for kids. Fill up an ice cube tray with water. Let your child add one or two drops of food coloring to each section. You can keep the basic colors of the food coloring or you can let your little one try out color combinations. Gently stir each cube section and freeze.
At bath time, pop out as many cubes as you want and watch your kid have a blast. If you want to be the "Teachable Moment" parent type, you can teach your child about color mixing (yellow and blue make green, etc.) while you're at it.
Ella's Technique:
Ella calls it Color Ice. She likes to "lose" her cube in the water and then call out "Iceeeee! Where are you Iceeeee?" while she tries to find it before it melts.
Peyton's Technique:
Peyton likes to let his melt in a bath cup before pouring the colored water into the bath. Sometimes he uses one as an ice crayon and draws on the sides of the tub.
Back in the day, I would let each of my kids have only two per bath time. The bath water would turn a pretty color and I'd take pictures. Now I sometimes let them have a whole tray in a Color Ice Bonanza. Inevitably, the bath water turns a hideous dark brown/purple yuck color. My kids think the swamp water look is hilarious. I imagine someone walking in and accusing me of bathing my kids in dirt while they dial social services. But I try to get over it, since it is only food coloring, and it's totally safe and washes right off for the most part.
Here's my extra fancy cost analysis: They're cheap.
Here's my extra fancy price comparison:
Buy It: Crayola Color Dotz cost $4.99 for 30. That's about 17 cents for each Bath Color Dot. They are neat though - and they're great stocking stuffers!
Make It: Dec-A-Cake food coloring is about $2.00 for the 4-color pack. I'm totally guessing how many drops are in each one, but let's say there are 50 drops per squeeze bottle. That's about 2 cents for each Color Ice. And your little monkey child gets to help make the cubes, which is an extra added bonus.
Happy Bath Time!
