Homemade baby bath toys for fun in the tub

These tips and tricks for easy playthings to keep babies busy in the bathtub are more fun than a trip to the toy store! Your toddler or grandchild will love when bath time rolls around!

Teach your little one to recognize letters or to spell her name. Pick up some inexpensive floating craft foam at your local craft shop. It is available in bright colours and can easily be cut to resemble every letter of the alphabet — perfect for bath-time learning F-U-N in the T-U-B!

Many of the best bath-time toys can be found in your kitchen. Plastic food containers like margarine/butter tubs, measuring spoons, large cooking spoons, funnels, colanders, cups, milk cartons — if it floats, pours, stirs or drips, it will inspire a child's imagination.

Plastic lids become floating platforms. Funnels create waterfalls. Plastic mesh berry baskets create masses of bubbles in soapy water. Simple, sturdy plastic items are safe and easy to clean; just routinely wipe down these 'kitchen' bath toys with a water and baking soda solution or run them through the dishwasher.

A small plastic vegetable strainer lets toddlers scoop up sponges or shapes cut from craft foam and strewn into the bathtub. It also promotes hand-eye coordination as your little one angles the net to snap up a shape. A clean, unused aquarium net also works. Help your toddler drop her "catch" into a plastic container, and count the items together when she tires of fishing in the tub.

Save those wax-coated milk, cream and half-and-half containers, snip off the spout, close the top with duct tape and paint the little admiral's fleet in her favourite colours using water-insoluble paint. Add a name, numbers to the sides, a Popsicle stick mast and a no-cost bath-time armada is hers!

These easy-to-make, handy bath toys are so much fun to play with, your child won't want to come out of the tub!