Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Gardening hack

Yesterday I thought I was so smart, getting my toddler to stay with me in the front yard by having her "help" me plant flowers, watering the flowers that were already in the ground. She turned into a champion water-pourer, which meant that I had to fill her watering can up every 90 seconds or so. Not so efficient, but at least it kept her where I could see her, and she was having a blast.

Today I got even smarter - instead of filling up her little watering can, I filled up a bucket that the can would fit into. The plan was that she would dunk the watering can into the bucket, fill it up, dump it out, and repeat two or three times before she ran out of water.


Nope. Instead we got at least 30 minutes of her playing around in one bucket of water. Splashing with her hand, washing off all of her kid-tools, washing off her shoes, filling her shoes with water and flinging it while shouting "Icy cold sprinkles everywhere!," etc.


It was only 80 degrees out and the water was straight from the tap - frigid, to say the least - but everything was great until she figured out this little trick:


Then each bucket lasted progressively less time, but it still kept her amused and under supervision, which is a success as far as I'm concerned.
I think next time we'll progress to giving her a paintbrush and a bucket of water and having her "paint" the sidewalk ... by the time she finishes, the first part should be dry and need more "paint." Oh, I'm a devious one, all right :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

One little I trick tried in Australia: I bought water colour powder, mixed it with some soap powder and a bit of water. Katherine painted herself, the sidewalk, the steps - and best of all, it washed right off!! Kept her amused for a long time. You can even give Liza paper on an easel! K's mom

Anonymous said...

I like the trick from K's mom. Does the water color powder create any stains? I worry that my concrete would forever be the rainbow hues produced by my 4-year-old.
- MLF

Anonymous said...

I used to really enjoy "washing the bricks" when I was little. I loved how they changed color.

YankeeTexan said...

Your comment about painting the sidewalk brought a fabulous children's book to mind. If you don't know it yet, you've got to get your hands on it and share it with your little one! It's hysterical! Singing the words and dancing around with a paintbrush are a must with this book!

_I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!_ by Karen Beaumont

Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

You can also "paint" on the sidewalk with ice cubes!

My mom would plunk me on the sidewalk with a bowl full of ice cubes -- if you have the half-moon shaped ones, you get a bonus fine point brush if you use a pointy end, or the wide brush, if you use the flat side.