On the days that we see her, we’re always involved in Daisy’s bathtime routine.
The bath toys are stacked up at one end of the bath and Daisy chooses what she’d like in the bath (usually that means everything goes into the bath) and she is now being encouraged to help to put the toys back at the end of bathtime. We’ve recently introduced a couple of brightly coloured jumbo pipettes to the bath toys stacked up at the end of the bath. At first Daisy just held and investigated the pipettes but over the weeks, with some demonstrations from Daddy and Grandpa, Daisy started to work out how to use the jumbo pipettes. She’s developed her own particular technique for filling the pipettes. She squashes the pipette rubber onto the base of the bath and then let’s the pipette fill. Daisy’s then developed her own particular technique for emptying the pipettes, using different grips and pressure to squeeze out the water.
These squeezing actions give toddlers muscle building practice for their hands and digits, strengthening the hand and finger muscles that they need to grip and hold tools and to be able to hold and use a writing implement.
There are plenty of different squeezy bath toys available. Whatever squeezing and squirting bath toys you use in the bath, don’t forget to empty them out at the end of bathtime and to clean them regularly to avoid mould developing inside.
The bonus of using the jumbo pipettes in the bath is that unlike conventional squeezy bath toys, you can see inside the pipette so that there are no nasty surprises when a toy squeezes out black mould.
You can also use small sponges in the bath to practise these squeezing actions though they may not be so much fun…. The pipettes are really popular now that Daisy has also discovered that she can squeeze and squirt the pipettes towards us!
Granny Smith's Diary 