Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere

As promised, here is the first in my series of posts on messy play.  I've decided to start out with a clean messy play idea to hopefully engage those of you that feel daunted by the idea of giving children even more reasons to make a mess.

Bubbles make a great substitute for your usual water play and are super easy to make!  The children will love scooping, blowing, gathering and fondling these fluffy little wonders!

I made these on a small scale in a large bowl, but they can easily be made in the water trough as well.  Simply add dish soap to your water - to make giant, fluffy bubbles that last, add quite a generous amount - about 10 big squirts. I then used my mixer to speed the bubble creation process (the children loved this part!), but if you don't have one handy,s imply offer a range of buckets, whisks and mixing spoons and get those kids agitating! The more they mix, the more bubbles will form.  If the bubbles disappear after a while, simply begin agitating the water again and more will form, no extra soap needed!

If you'd prefer not to use dish soap, any kind of bubble bath would work equally well, and may be more gentle on the children's skin.  Cleanup for this is easy, the bubbles will simply melt away after some time and the water trough will just need to be rinsed thoroughly.
Go ahead, give it a go and get some of the messy play mojo! ;)