Bucket.

I was looking back over recent posts and wondered if there were other props, like our plank, that have been used for multiple things. One that sprung to mind was buckets because we've currently got a big orange one which seems to be permanently lying about on the grass looking untidy- every time I put it away one of the boys needs it for something and it reappears.

So here's a run down of some of the ways they've used a variety of buckets (sorry, I do realise this is a bit random, but I'm running short on ideas and I want to get to 50 posts before I quit!!)
Water play:

In the garden the boys have often used a bucket to make streams down our bits of drainpipe and gutter or through the sandpit.
At the beach a bucket is essential equipment for collecting water to keep the various creatures you might find in happily, or to fill up the moat of your sandcastle. And we were very glad we'd brought the buckets camping when the boys spent a lot of time mucking about in the little stream.

A couple of years ago I agreed to organise some apple-bobbing at the pre-school's halloween disco, and the boys still associate our enormous toy bucket with this. Somehow the kids managed not to get too soaking wet, and with apples with the longest stalks I could find, they were even able to successfully hoik some out with their teeth.




Buckets of water can be useful too. Both boys enjoy being given the job of washing the car, or washing garden toys, and they will happily mop the kitchen floor- though I only give them a little bit of water else they turn it into an indoor swimming pool! A bucket full of soapy water is an easy place to get yourself clean too if you've been playing muddy games in the garden! 

Sand play:

Although we also use yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and all sorts of other things, there's no doubt that the best sandcastles are made with a bucket!

 

Collecting things:

Various of the boys' small buckets have been acquired at Easter time with chocolate in, and have then been used for their Easter hunt, collecting little eggs around the garden. I've also had them, buckets in hand, collecting the heads of all the dandelions on the lawn before they go to seed. Zac's recently been using the orange bucket to collect sand, gravel and water to make "cement" for his latest building project in the bushes!
 
Pulley:

"Haul away Danz!"

We have a bucket on the end of a pulley attached to our "tree house" which the boys use to winch things up. Sometimes they ask me to put a surprise snack in there and then haul it up to see if it's anything exciting. They also used to haul small balls up to post down the drain pipe.

Goal:

We've used a bucket to shoot a variety of balls into, as an easy version of basketball, or sometimes the boys have rolled balls down the slide, over a jump and into a bucket.

Wish it tasted like hot chocolate too!

Brewing beer:

Oh, no, that's just Daddy!

I'm sure there are many other uses for a bucket. The boys have definitely used upturned buckets as seats, for jumping off and as a makeshift drum kit.
What might your kids do?

Update! Danny's class at school were given a homework project of making a musical instrument from recycled materials and emailing a clip of them playing it to school. Surprise, surprise he made the most of a whole selection of random buckets to make a drum kit. Not the most polished performance but he arrived home yesterday dead chuffed because, "I watched me on the massive whiteboard!"