Outdoor Play: Car Wash Fun for the Entire Family!

My husband recently got our daughter into car washing since it’s both a first-world necessity as well as something that keeps her entertained. Initially, it was our actual family car, but today he promised our daughter that after he was done with work, they could wash her toy car. She was excited about this ALL day! In reality, we have things that need to get done in our home outdoors, but we also have a desire and responsibility to keep this little one busy and happy. This activity provided us with the best of both worlds. 

MATERIALS:
Toy car (although any plastic toys could work)
Bucket 
Towel or sponge 
Soap
Water
Hose (optional)

*This activity would be best done in a bathing suit because your child (and likely you) WILL get wet.

HOW TO MAKE IT EDUCATIONAL:
• LANGUAGE/VOCABULARY – Talk about the parts of a car as you wash them (steering wheel, license plate, headlights, etc).
• COLORS – Challenge your child to wash by colors as you call them out to see if they’re correctly IDENTIFYING them. Switch roles and have them call out the colors and you wash them if you want to work on color NAMING.
• LITERACY- Have them name or identify any letters they see (in this case, the license plate). You can also use bath crayons to write letters all over the car and have them do a “letter hunt” for a specific letter (if they’re not reading yet, it may be best to start with the first letter of their name).
• SCIENCE – Provide different car washing tools (i.e., sponge, small towel, toothbrush) and have them try washing the car with each one of them to determine which they think is the best/most efficient.
• LITERACY – Have them journal about their experience (even if this is only a simple drawing and you write the words for them).
• MATH – Have them identify all the shapes they can find on the car (steering wheel, headlights, and tires are round like a circle, license plate is a rectangle, etc).