Scrub A Dub Dub

Bath time is a great time to introduce literacy activities. You have a captivated, somewhat contained audience and literacy can easily become part of the bath time routine.

Here are some great ideas from www.pbskids.org

1. Keep books and magazines available in the bathroom. Your home should have reading matter everywhere. Show kids that you read and that books are available all around them. Help kids read the words on the toothpaste label and the instructions on shampoo.

2. Sing songs together at your kids' bathtime. Be as loud as you can be! Make up new songs.
Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a shark? A mermaid? A pirate?

3. Try bath crayons. They let kids write on tile and it washes right off.

4. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.

5. Chat to your kids in the bath. Can you think of a better time when they have your attention? Conversation is really important as your kids learn to read, write, listen and speak. You are their primary model.

6. Write with your finger on steamy windows.

7. Use the bathroom mirror to experiment with reading mirror-writing.
Take that one step further, and try to write in mirror-writing so that you can read it in the mirror.


Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Co. where big ideas for little printers such as our Signature Stamp for learning to print engage active and curious kids!