Children are not generally the cleanest of people, what with all the falling over in the mud, rolling about in the garden, shinning up trees, and crawling about the floor into dusty corners. It is therefore a necessary fact that they need regular baths. Unfortunately, they don't always agree, and so trying to make bath time fun whilst you scrape the dirt off your child to discover them lurking underneath is important.



Fortunately today there is a wide range of bath toys, and we are not stuck with having to stare at one bewildered looking plastic duck bobbing away through the foam. Rubber ducks are still very much a popular item, generally coming in family packs of four of five it seems now though, but there are many other toys besides, some of which are designed purely to make bath time fun, others to be a little educational. After all, water can be educational in itself when you think about the amount of science that uses it.

For example, there are some toys which use rubber suckers to stick to the bathroom wall - usually as this is tiles they stick very well. These toys then allow a bucket or can of water to be poured in to the top, which then causes a variety of effects as it trickles down and runs back into the bath. In some cases it makes a water wheel turn round, which is both fun and helps them to understand the idea of a waterwheel. Others have animals on whose eyes, hands or head rocks backwards and forwards as the water runs through. Almost always the mechanics of this movement are visible, so that whilst to begin with the child may simply be satisfied with seeing the effect, after a while they may show a natural curiosity to try to understand how falling water can achieve a sideways rocking effect.

Another popular toy along a similar principle relies on suction, rather than gravity. Again, it sticks to the bathroom wall, and looks just like a shower head. A rubber hose drops down into the bath water at the bottom, and in the middle there is a big button. By pressing the button, water is sucked up the hose, and eventually comes out of the shower head - a bit like siphoning the water through a shower system.

There are also many toys which help to teach other principles - such as volume. A series of cans or other containers which vary in size can be used to explore how many of one cup it takes to fill a big cup, and so on. Still another is a small submarine or diver with a long hose attached with a bulb at one end. The diver sinks to the bottom, but when you squeeze the bulb, he rises to the surface. This principle works on exactly the same principle as submarines use to surface or dive, and simply uses air pressure. This can appear to be a magical effect for children, and it will be many years before they really start to understand the principle of it.

So as well as being fun, there's no reason at all why children can't be learning even at bath time. But of course, don't tell them that!