When it’s obviously too cold outside for water table play, here’s a fantastic hack to create a water table right in the warmth of your kitchen. Simply tilt open the door of an (empty) dishwasher, and you have a shelf at the perfect height for a toddler. All that’s left to do is to arrange a few items on the shelf like a bucket of warm water, cups for pouring, scoops, and other water toys.

To heighten the summer feel of the activity, I dressed Veronika in her favorite bathing suit and laid a fluffy beach towel underneath the open dishwasher. This towel was perfect not just for catching any spills, but also keeping her bare feet warm! She immediately began playing, needing no instruction for this activity. There was lots of happy scooping, pouring, and dumping.

She loves cups with holes that make water “rain” down a little at a time. Then she was busy for a while pouring water from one small cup to another.

Such concentration!

And of course sometimes she got impish, lifting the cups up high for a big waterfall that splashed down!

After about 20 minutes she was ready for warm dry clothes, but this was a great way to fit in water play in the middle of winter.