DIY hand washing station

Little Bean is getting the hang of washing his hands at the bathroom basin with a little help from me and he just loves the child size basin at his Gymboree class. So, I thought it was time to give him his own hand washing station. Vietnamese bathrooms usually have a tap on the wall for filling buckets so it was really easy to do.

My first step was the DIY hand washing basin. Then I added a cute non-slip bath mat, soap dish, hand towel and vanity mirror. I couldn't find any small bars of soap (hotel soap is perfect) so I cut an ordinary bar of soap into thirds with a meat cleaver. I put a piece at my basin too so that Little Bean will see me washing my hands the same way that he does. The mirror has a place to store toothbrushes, toothpaste and other small items. I'm not storing his toothbrush here yet as he kept running off with it. I keep it with mine and give it to him when we brush our teeth every morning and night. These days, he really likes brushing his teeth and will happily let me finish the job for him. This is a far cry from several months ago when he all but kicked and screamed if I tried to help. Then, three months ago, he started that phase where they want to copy what Mummy and Daddy do. From then on out, he wanted to brush whenever I did and even let me help him to do it properly. Yay, victory. Some days, especially on the hard days, it really is about the small victories.

While I would love to have added a little porcelain basin to our bathroom, it hardly seemed worth the expense since we're building our new house soon. I plan to put a child size ensuite bathroom off Little Bean's bedroom in the new house though. For this project, I bought a tiny plastic stool and two plastic bowls the same size. I simply used silicone to glue one bowl to the top of the stool. The other bowl nests inside it. Little Bean can turn on the tap and put water in the bowl and when he's finished, I can lift the top bowl out and empty it into the basin. By using two nested bowls, it's sturdy and can't get knocked over. 

I'm still helping him wash his hands but he does most of it himself. He needs a little prompting sometimes to help him remember all the steps. I think that I'll make some laminated picture cards showing each of the steps and put them on the wall above the basin. Now I just have to get him to co-operate long enough to take photos next time he washes his hands. Wish me luck.