Water Fun for Kids: Workin’ at the Car Wash

When you mix kids with water, you usually end up with a fun time.  Add to that some soap, sponges, bikes, and a dirty minivan, and you have tons of water fun for kids!  At a recent summer camp, we set up a car wash for the kiddos!  Needless to say, hours of fun ensued.

To start off, we set up a tent with lowered legs for the children.  To liven it up, strips of a cut up plastic tablecloth were added along the edges.  The children could bring bikes into the “bike wash” and scrub them clean.  This entertained them for a little while, and then they decided riding the bikes through the tent was more fun.

While the kids had fun washing the bikes, they were beyond excited to wash my minivan.  I think it was having a real car to wash that did it for them.  All we needed for this was a dirty car (mine!), water, sponges, and some soap.  They spent close to two hours scrubbing at my van, rinsing it off, scrubbing it again, and rinsing it back off.  The bottom half of my car was incredibly clean after this!

Yes, there was also some kid-washing during this activity.  A few kids, and teachers, also got sprayed with the hose!  I’m pretty sure it was my son who was the biggest culprit!  He got as good as he gave, though, and ended up completely soaked before we were done.

For some reason, the kids also created this game of throwing the sponges over the roof of the car.  Needless to say, there were many squeals and giggles to be heard!  I think watching the teachers attempt to get the sponges off the roof made it even funnier!

Notice all of the sponges on top of the van? Goofballs!!

This turned out to be an amazing activity for the kids.  Even better, it was incredibly simple to set up and clean up!

Update Summer 2013 — We have done this a few more times for summer camps and Water Days.  It continues to be a big hit with the children!