Water Play

[GirlMomma]

I am planning on doing a water day soon. I have water tables, a small pool, sprinkler system, slip and slide and of course squirt guns.

I am struggling on letting them wear clothes and just wade in the pool or fight with swim suits. Do any of you change your kiddos into swim suits? Do you have the parents send them in swim suits?

[Rockgirl]

I do water days one of two ways, depending on the kids I have.

1) Each child has a swimsuit, towel, and sunblock in a bag that stays here, and I wash the swimsuits and towels after each use. This works well for older kids who can change their own clothes. It allows us to do water days any time we decide to. We always do them mid-morning.

2) I let parents know ahead of time when we will have a water day, and they dress/sunblock their child that morning for water play, and send extra sunblock for me to reapply. I bag up the swimsuits/towels and send them home at the end of the day. I do this when I have a younger group, and we don’t do as many water days with the younger ones.

[BoxBear]

We do water play once (or more) a week during the summer. I have a drawer with multiple sizes of long sleeve swim shirts, cotton shorts and everyone has a sun hat. To help with cost, you could ask each parent to supply a long sleeve swim shirt for their child. I bought small, thin, cheap towels from Walmart that are light weight and easy to wash and dry.

I change them before water play and put them back in their regular clothes afterwards. Toss it all in the washer with the towels for next time.

I apply sunscreen as needed. Usually with a long sleeve shirt, sun hat and partially shaded yard we don’t need much sunscreen.

We are not permitted to have wading pools here. Nothing on the ground that holds water. We can do sprinklers or water tables.

[Alwaysgreener]

I just do water tables. They tend to play in the water, then go off and play. By the time we go in, most of the kids are dry. If the child needs a change, I change them but leave their wet items on the porch to dry. Then repeat in the afternoon.

We are allowed pools but the regulation around them make it impossible. They must be emptied when we go inside. So if a child has to pee, everything must be turned off and emptied, then start all over when you get back out. If the water is to cold, the kids won't touch it. So not worth it to me.

[Blackcat31]

Any water play that requires a swimsuit (sprinkler, water guns, and/or slip and slide) is reserved for the older kids that can undress and dress themselves.
Those that can’t do water table only

[Alwaysgreener]

I agree swimsuits require let the child is we capable of changing themselves. And potty trained because I would never want to deal with a soggy diaper.

[e.j.]

I am planning on doing a water day soon. I have water tables, a small pool, sprinkler system, slip and slide and of course squirt guns.

I am struggling on letting them wear clothes and just wade in the pool or fight with swim suits. Do any of you change your kiddos into swim suits? Do you have the parents send them in swim suits?

Instead of a pool, I have water tables and spray bottles for the kids to use so I usually just let them wear their regular clothing. As long as it's sunny and warm, their clothing dries before we head inside.

If I were planning a water day with a pool, slip and slides and sprinklers, though, I'd probably ask parents to send their kids in swimsuits. I'm thinking the girls would probably arrive with shorts over their swimsuits and the boys would probably arrive with a t-shirt over their swim trunks, so it'd be pretty easy just to remove the clothing they don't need once it was time to start playing in the water. My dc kids would never just wade in the pool even if it's a small, wading pool. They'd dive right in and be totally soaked within seconds so bathing suits would make sense for us.

[GirlMomma]

Thanks, everyone!!