How do you all get creative with water play if your area is in drought conditions and you're on water restrictions?

Currently we are only allowed to water once a week and we are in Texas so the kids can't really be outside for any amount of time without water play.

Any suggestions??

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Can you make rain barrels and utilize that source of water?

They're pretty easy to make

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Frozen water balloons, filled with colored water. Peel balloon away, slow melt over sand in water tray. It is a hit.

Low consumption, unlimited potential.

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Last summer we filled different pans/buckets with water and small toys and froze them. We took them outside and used toy shovels, toy hammers,....to break the ice away from the toys. (Pinterest idea) If you color the water, it is harder for them to see the toys until they have broken away ice in the right areas.

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Spray bottles...either large or small or a water table. Mine is a step two and only takes 2 five quart pails of water. Those soft balls you soak in water are fun.

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We just put in water misters that use very little water but keep the kids nice and cool. Instead of putting them on a gazebo, though, we put them along the side of our house, zigzagging from the house to the fence. They are 6 feet off the ground, so even though there is little water, to the kids, it feels like a lot. They drive the cars and trikes under them and it is their car wash. We also set the water tables up with it, but I don't know if you could get away with that.

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We are in TX too and I just fill up one plastic pool with water and talk to the kids about our drought and conserving water. I tell them that we can't use unlimited water to play in so if they splash or pour all the water out then it's gone and they can't play anymore. So usually they are great about playing IN the pool water and not just pouring it all out of the pool. We get several hours of play time for 4-5 kids with one pool of water and personally I think that's really good. We stay cool and use only a few gallons per kid.

I do pour it out when we are finished for safety reasons (wouldn't want anyone wandering out unattended) and for sanitary purposes and allow the pool to fully dry in the sun before next use. Also I don't allow diapered children in the pool. If I have any in diapers they play with a small Rubbermaid container of water at chest height.

Also the kids and I pour out the majority of the water in the pool into our veggie and fruit gardens and on our landscaping and hand watering isn't restricted here.

That said, I don't know if this is exactly legal. But we do it in my back yard and no one has seen us or said anything.

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friend during every other day water restrictions started discharging the rinse water from her washing machine into big buckets and watering plants with it.. it was rinse water so little soap left.

I do water table, buckets with sponges to wash the cars. tubs with water to bathe the baby dolls.

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