Twenty Seconds of Soap

What you need

• soap
• a hand towel

How to do it

1. Wet their hands and get the soap on.
2. Start singing Happy Birthday and keep rubbing their hands while you sing it.
3. Sing it a second time. That's about twenty seconds.
4. Rinse and dry when the song ends.

Why it matters

Twenty seconds means nothing to a toddler, but a song they know has a beginning and an end, so the rubbing lasts as long as it should without anyone counting.

What they're learning

Keeping going

Carrying on with something until the song ends is harder than it sounds and useful everywhere.

Rubbing hands together

The longer the rubbing lasts, the more of it actually gets done.

Knowing when it ends

The end of the song is the end of the job. No negotiating required.

What to look for

Watch for them carrying on rubbing until the song stops rather than pulling their hands away.

A tip

Any song you both know works. The point is that it's always the same one and always the same length.

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