Pool PlayPens are the Best!

A while back, I seen a post on Pinterest about using a play pen as a pool. I thought that idea was amazing! I loved the idea of Honey having a big but contained area to play in. So of course, I had to borrow that idea. You can check out the original post by Rachel over at Can Do Kiddo here.

So for Christmas, Santa brought Honey a pool of her own and we were so excited to put this idea into action! After we finally got our Christmas decorations, we put up her pool and we have not looked back since. We all love our pool playpen! Honey loves all the space that she has to move around in. Josh loves it because thereʻs enough room for him to get in with her. And I love it because itʻs a clean and safe place for her to play! Sure, it takes up our entire living room, but we didnʻt use it much before anyway.

Here are my 5 reasons why we love our pool playpen & why you should give it a try!

itʻs a mini living room inside a living room.

1. Lots of room for kids to explore and play safely. We purchased a large family pool for about $25 at K-Mart during the end of summer sales. We toyed with getting a smaller pool that would better fit our living room, but opted for the bigger one simply because of the space that Honey would have to play. The infant and toddler years (when sheʻs going to get the most use of the pool) are such important developmental years and I believe that children need as much room as they can to explore. I also believe in keeping the kid safe. This pool gives Honey so much room to explore all of her surroundings and still keeps her safe! I donʻt have to worry too much about her bumping her head on our furniture or on the ground (thanks to our foam Alphabet puzzles) or her getting a hold of things that arenʻt baby safe.

2. Keeps all of her clutter and toys contained. This is probably my favorite thing about our pool playpen. Thereʻs lots of room for all of her toys and thereʻs still so much room for her to move around. We used cloth bins from Target to keep the toys and books that she isnʻt currently playing with contained.

3. Itʻs a safe environment for baby to play independently. As part of childhood development, I believe that sometimes children need to explore and play with minimal adult interaction. I allow Honey to play the way she wants to play rather than showing her how to play, so the pool allows her to explore and play with her surroundings with minimal interaction from me. I am also able to do things that I need to do with peace of mind because I know that sheʻs safe in her pool. I have been known to blog, read, or eat on the couch while Honey plays.

4. Itʻs also big enough for family play. Both Josh and I enjoy playing with Honey and we often get into the pool with her. We have been spending family time by playing together in the pool. We love that we can all hang out together without getting in each otherʻs way!

5. Clean up is so easy! We explore all kinds of play in the pool--sensory play, water play, art, etc. Honey also eats in her pool. With all of that, plus Honeyʻs tendency to play with ALL the toys at one time, it can get pretty messy in there. Thankfully, clean up is pretty simple--all we need is a wet sponge or (more often) a wipe and no more mess! We do a bit of a ʻdeeperʻ clean every other weekend by spraying down the pool and Honeyʻs plastic toys down with Thieves Cleaner, an all-natural, essential oils based house cleaner that I swear by. 

Those are the top five reasons why we love our pool play pen and why you should give it a try...especially if you have the space and a mobile infant or toddler. Seriously, I think Iʻve convinced all of my IRL friends to just go out and buy pools for their kids because why not?!

What are your favorite ways to keep baby/toddlers occupied?