Outdoor – Play while I try to sweep ending in a fun water hose game

We are having some gorgeous dry days – warm in the sun, frosty in the shade.  For us no rain is great even if it is cold.  After a  dog walk I thought I would try and do a little bit of patio sweeping and maybe another few small garden jobs.  Luath loves to sweep, she has an indoor and outdoor brush, so I thought we would sweep together but Luath had other ideas.  I thought it was fun to record how Luath played while I swept and how a job that really only would take about 10 minutes can take a lot lot longer with a toddler in tow.

A little bit of sweeping, then checking out the brush.

She then wanted to play on her slide – she needs help on this – so she had a few goes and I had a few pretend goes. She decided she then wanted to go indoors but to try to keep her outside I suggested some wall painting.  I gave her tubs of paint I had made a few weeks ago from food colouring, flour, water and salt. She enjoyed this for a little time – she loves the idea of painting but gets bored quite quickly, I had hoped the novelty of painting outdoors and on the wall would engage her.

Next she asked to go on her swing.  I managed to do some sweeping while I pushed her. She had another go on her slide and rolled some pine cones down it.  She then happily entertain herself investigating various items on the patio area while I finished sweeping.  I decided to clean our bird baths.  Luath thought we should use the hose and quickly climbed up but got distracted by some slates in a box.

Luath climbed down once I said I would use the hose, so we cleaned and filled the two bird baths.

Water hose game
I let Luath hold the hose herself.  I told her she was like a fire fighter and set up a pot to be the fire for her to put out.  The pot moved when it was hit at it’s base.  I then set up a few pots for her to aim and move.  It was quite a skill to get the water onto the pots as Luath tended to told the hose so the water was going upward.

We then build some pot towers, these proved tough to knock down completely.

We don’t use the hose often as we collect rain water (plenty of that usually here!) but I will definitely involve Luath for any future hose usage.

 

Shared with Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum and outdoor play via Kitchen Counter Chronicles