Lucky Bath Fun with Craft Foam (Shamrocks and Rainbows)

I don’t know about you, but bath/bedtime around here is the time of the day when we most need the luck of the Irish with us in this house.  The time between dinner and bedtime is often when mommy, daddy, and toddler are all tired and not sure what to do with ourselves. We prepare a lovely dinner which our almost 2.5 year old may or may not touch.  While I’m still trying to finish eating or clean up dinner, he says, “Ready, set, boo, go run!”.  Every night.  My husband and I bust out our last bit of energy reserve to let Reece use up the rest of his, in anticipation of bath, books, and bed to follow.

We always have fun together, but evening routines can get pretty monotonous.  Nobody seems to want to play with the same old toys during this witching hour and it appears that Reece is most imaginative in the evening.  He likes us to build the couch pillows into houses, teepees, hot dog toppings, and lily pads.  We pretend we’re frogs, cats, robots, and horses.  He even loves to ‘go shopping downtown’ in the kitchen, carrying a bag and pretending he’s in the parking garage elevator.  I love seeing my son’s imagination and providing him with new easy little ideas.

Which is why craft foam has become a big thing for us at bath time.  Ever since I found out it sticks to surfaces when wet, it has been a great way to get Reece eager to transition from playtime to bath time in the evenings.  And just like with our bath pumpkin patch, turkey tub, and magical Christmas bath, there are so many great ‘themes’ to easily change it up.
March is perfect for a lucky shamrock bath!  You can cut your own craft foam (affiliate link if you buy it here) or buy already-made seasonal shapes from a craft store.  These shamrock shapes came ready to go from Michael’s store, and then I (extremely) roughly just cut out slightly curved rainbow-colored pieces.  Even a big black chunk I called a ‘pot’ and a spare yellow diamond piece I called ‘gold’.  I cut a small white piece of foam from the snowman shape I used a couple of months ago, recycling it into a ‘cloud’ at the other end of the rainbow.  Simply get wet in the bath and stick on the tub walls!

I could have made the rainbow look much nicer, and so can you, but I really like to keep this activity simple and remind you that you can seriously cut out shapes RIGHT THERE while your children bath.  I want my son to see that creativity can be easy and fun, rather than a time-consuming chore.

We also use homemade bath paint in rainbow colors like this to double the fun some nights! A few other ideas to add to the bath fun include green food coloring in the water, maybe some drops of calming essential oils, gold play coins and random green items (beads, shiny things, etc).  You could write letters or words on the craft foam shamrocks to make it an educational activity.  What a great way to review spelling or vocab words!  They could search the tub to find the right letters or words they need.  Children of multiple ages could enjoy this craft foam fun together!

Nostalgic sidestory that may give you March fun ideas:  I had these shamrock foam shapes on hand from my elementary classroom days a few years ago before I was a mom.  Every year I taught, my students were excited for March because Lucky the Leprechaun always visited us leading up to Saint Patrick’s Day.  Lucky was quite the prankster and we looked forward to his letters/clues/mischief, culminating in a big scavenger hunt around the school on party day.  My kiddos enjoyed it so much that we even scrapbooked our fun each year which was such a great lesson in teamwork, planning, organization, and design.  Even choosing what was important to save and how to document it became a really great practical lesson I’m so glad my students and I were able to do.  Perhaps a leprechaun could visit your home, for older children.  I didn’t think my toddler was ready to understand sneaky little leprechaun fun yet though!

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