Wash The Baby Bin

Objective: Wash, dry, and dress the baby. A good show of step taking capabilities!

Benefits:

This busy bin offers a high level of engagement, focus, and language development! It gives your little one(s) an opportunity to show what they know by going through the motions of washing, dressing, and caring for baby.

Basic Materials:

This bin contains a blend of real life items and toys. First you’ll need about 2 inches of water in a bin (bubbles and blue food coloring optional) and a large towel for clean up handy. A baby wash cloth, a hand towel (the perfect size for drying baby), a small brush, doll clothes for dressing, toothbrush, doll underwear or small diaper, bottle, any additional tools used to take care of baby; like medicine dropper, etc.

How I Interact:

Lots of demonstration needed with this one as there is a high level of engagement for both you and your toddler(s). To start, I lay everything out for baby, put her in the tub, and begin to wash her, naming each body part as I go. I then let Yumi attempt to do the same. A turn taking situation continues as I take baby out, place her on the towel, and begin to dry her off. I let Yumi finish this step, while pointing to what goes next and naming the item “diaper”, and begin diapering, as at 16 months this task is a bit difficult for her to do. Then, I grab the clothes and name them and the respective body parts I’m putting them on. (i.e. her arm goes through the hole of the dress). We moved onto brushing her hair, then sat her up to brush her teeth. Yumi really enjoyed the medicine part, and we finished up with feeding baby the bottle!

Repeatedly doing this bin is a great way for Yumi to learn anatomy and the names of body parts. Additionally, it replicates the daily life skills she is experiencing through pretend play and allows her to demonstrate all the new things she’s learning!