Bike Wash – a fun summer activity for kids!

Are you looking for a way to keep your kids cool during the dreadfully hot days? Is it nearing the end of the season but you’re still having that heat wave and the pool has turned a slimy green? If your kids are like my son they want to stay inside because “it’s too hot”. Try this fun summer activity to get them off of the couch and soaking up some vitamin D!

Living in the south we still have plenty of hot days well into the fall. On one of these terribly humid days, I set up the garden sprinkler for my son to play in. Instead he decided he just wanted to take his bike into the water to watch it get wet. Kids are silly like that. He gave me a great idea to set up a bike wash for him. It was super simple and kept him busy for quite a while.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A hose, you can use just the hose but it’s a bonus if it is hooked up to a sprinkler so the kids can cool off. If they don’t like playing in the sprinkler you could hook up a hose nozzle.
• Soap and squeeze container- I used dawn and mixed it with a little water. I used a travel shampoo container that I already had.
• Something to wash the bikes with- bath pouf, wash cloth, rag, or a sponge would work great. I had a small travel shower pouf left over from our vacation that I gave my son to use.
• Bike, you could even set up a scooter, big wheel or whatever ride on toys your kids have.

That’s it! You probably have all of these items on hand.

Instructions:

Now set up your hose and sprinkler, away from anything that you don’t want to get wet. Have your kids grab their ride on toys. Then pass out the sponges and a soap bottle. Now you can sit back and relax while your kids stay occupied and cool. My son even wanted to wash part of dad’s car too. If you have more than one child or your house is the one that all the neighbor kids flock to, you could have them set up a bike wash line.

Try this fun summer activity for the kids!

This fun summer activity for the kids will help them with develop fine motor skills as well as taking learning responsibility and taking pride in keeping their things clean. This was an extremely easy activity to set up and kept my 4 year old occupied for at least an hour. He had so much fun soaping up his bike and watching the bubbles rinse away. He was even washing his arms. If I were to do this again I might try to add a pinch of food coloring to the soap to see if I could create colorful bubbles and turn it into a rainbow bike wash. Let me know if you’ve tried this summer activity, what did your kids think?