MORE Car Wash Activities!

My boys love washing their little toy cars, so I thought why not start another car wash on a bigger scale???  Here are two different ideas for getting out the suds and bubbles again!

BIG TRUCK Car Wash

We had a custom shelf built for our larger trucks (the Bruder trucks are too long to fit on most bookshelves and I hated having them lay on the floor) and we refer to it as our garage.  One morning, I was feeling ambitious and my goal was to completely clean the playroom – surfaces and all.  The hard part about doing this is always that once I touch any toy, the boys immediately want to play with it.  So, I spread some towels down on the floor and gave them a water bucket, rags, and squirt bottles. I told them while I cleaned the garage, they were going to wash their trucks – they were thrilled!  I had them drive their trucks to form a line at their car wash and while I cleaned the garage shelves, as well as the rest of the playroom, they washed down all their trucks!  It was easy enough to just let the trucks dry once we were all done and I have to say, I was actually able to complete my cleaning mission!  I felt good giving my children a PRETEND PLAY experience while I carried out a grown up task. 

 

 

Car Wash Outdoors

We’ve been spending much of our time outdoors with the warm and sunny weather, which is great.  The fresh air is good for everyone and the boys just seem calmer and happier when they’re outside.  The other day was hot enough for the pool.  Anthony has always loved the pool, but Michael not so much.  Anthony begged Michael every 10 minutes to come in the pool with him and Michael just went on his merry way mowing the lawn with his toy mower.  I felt bad for both of them and wanted them to spend a little time playing together.  Car wash!   I brought out their pails, some rags, and the sprinkler and told them it was time to play car wash.  I had bought bath tub finger paints from the Dollar Spot at Target so I squirted their Little Tike car with them to get them “dirty.” 

The boys set to work cleaning their vehicle!  It was a good time to chat about CLEAN and DIRTY and also the different PARTS OF THE CAR (hood, lights, trunk).  Adding words that NAME the PARTS of things is a great way to expand your little one’s vocabulary.  We also talked about the FUNCTION of each of the PARTS (the steering wheel turns the wheels).  It really was a fun way to spend a sunny afternoon!

 

Hope your little ones find these car wash activities as enjoyable as we did!  Make sure to check out our original car wash activity which is perfect for a rainy day!

 

Love & Language,

Marisa