Best Water Toys For Kids

Keeping the kids amused throughout the summer can be tricky.

On a hot day there is always plenty of backyard fun to be had with water toys. They are a great way to keep the kids cool during a hot summer.

Whether it's splashing around with water tables, leaping through sprinklers or battling with water soakers, there are a lot of options available for energetic kids who need cooling down.

Sprinklers can be great toys for toddlers and older children in the garden on a hot day. Kid friendly sprinklers are especially designed to be safer than ordinary sprinklers.

If you are looking for a good sprinkler for your garden, one recommendation is the Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Blossom Bright Sprinkler.

Designed like a cute bouquet of flowers, this superb sprinkler can easily be fitted to a hose. It's all soft rubber and pretty small, so it's safe for them to jump over.

Spraying in all directions, this fun outside toy can send a jet of water pretty high, depending on the water pressure.

Playing with water on a hot day is always fun for young kids. Having a splash table for the little ones to play with during the summer is a great idea. Toddlers can have a whale of a time, splashing away as they hold on to the sides of the water table. Buckets, boats and other water toys all add to the watery fun. The American Plastic Toy Water Wheel Play Table is an affordable piece of play kit for toddlers and well worth a look. The small, triangular table is easy to store and is a good low height for little ones. It can be used for playing with water or sand.

Another table which includes areas for water and sand is the Step2 Play Up Adjustable Sand Water Table. One great feature of this play table is that the length of the legs can be adjusted, meaning that the table can grow with your child. The fun table also comes with a whole bunch of accessories so it's likely to keep your little one busy for ages. One drawback of water tables which combine play areas for sand and water is that sometimes the two things can get mixed up. What this means is that you may well end up with one messy mixture.

Playing around with a water splash table is good fun for little ones, but something else that children love to do is squirt each with a water gun.

For full out water war, water soakers are bigger than an ordinary gun, these hold more water and can fire a continuous stream of water. One of the best is the Nerf Super Soaker Scatter Blaster. Looking like some futuristic weapon, it is a powerful, pump-action blaster which can fire five steams of water at a target.

For little ones who want to play at being firefighters, the Super Soaking Fire Hose with BackPack is a pretty cool water toy.

This impressive piece of garden play kit is a backpack which has a hose which sprays water. Give it to your child and they'll be running around the place, squirting everywhere.

Truth be told, giving one of these to your little one is a great way to get your kid to help out with watering the plants or cleaning the car.

Another fun water gun - although this time, it doesn't really look like anything a gun - is the Max Liquidator Eliminator. This toy doesn't have a trigger like a normal water gun. Instead, it uses a pump action to fire water. It is great for shooting water across a backyard and is a cheaper option than a lot of the water blasters that are available. The water-shooting weapon comes in a variety of colors.

Always popular with the little ones on a hot, summers day is a water pool.

The brightly colored Swim Center Ocean Reef Pool is a great choice. The downside of inflatable pools is that there is some effort involved in inflating and deflating them between uses. They are a great summertime entertainment young school-age children though.

Always remember with water pools though, that care should always be taken. Accidents can happen, so always keep a watchful eye when very young children are playing in a water pool.

As well as a pool for splashing around in, another source of summertime fun is a water slide. Attach a hose to the Wham-o Surf Rider Slip N Slide 16 Ft. Slide to create a really fun, activity. Watch them slip and slide to their hearts content ad they whizz through the wall of spray. Likely to keep the kids entertained for hours, this is a great source of summertime fun.