kids washing their hands, brushing their teeth, going potty, and doing washing hands play activities

How do I teach my child good hygiene skills?

There are so many fun and hands-on ways ways to teach healthy hygiene habits!

Inside this post we share four simple activities to get you started playing and talking about good hygiene with your kids!

You don’t need to wait until your kids are big to start teaching them good hygiene skills!

RELATED: There are so many things toddlers need to know. Here are 6 skills toddlers need to learn.

little girl sitting on a pretend potty

What are basic hygiene skills that kids need to know?

There are several important hygiene skills that kids need to know! We’re only focusing on a few of them this week:

  1. Washing your hands
  2. Brushing your teeth two times per day (and flossing for kids that are old enough)
  3. Showering and/or bathing regularly and drying yourself off
  4. Blowing your nose and covering coughs/sneezes
  5. Toileting and cleaning private parts & flushing the toilet

Other hygiene habits you can focus on are changing into clean clothes daily, clean up after themselves and clean their rooms/personal space, putting trash in the garbage, replacing the toilet paper roll, taking care of their hair, food handling hygiene, and more!

Is there a hygiene skill that you feel your kids need to work on? Tell us in the comments!

Why is good hygiene important for a child?

Personal hygiene skills are important for kids to learn because they help kids stay healthy and feel good about themselves. Start building good habits when they are little!

Teach Kids about Hygiene in Simple Ways!

Start small and simple and build on each thing you teach. We picked four hygiene skills to focus on this week. Kids are given exposure to these skills and then we will build on them through other activities down the road.

Learning about hygiene doesn’t need to be complicated. Introduce hygiene to kids in fun ways!

Each of the four activities we included focuses on a different hygiene skill.

Download Printable Hygiene Skills Activity Plan HERE

hygiene skills activity plan for kids with photo of little girl brushing her teeth

This hygiene skills themed activity guide includes…

  • Some simple things to talk about/show kids
  • A supply list for the activities
  • 4 simple hygiene themed activities
  • Movie & book ideas

** Some of the activities, books, and movie titles are clickable on the plan and will direct you to a YouTube read aloud or Amazon rental link (not affiliate links).

Hygiene Skills Themed Activities for Kids

Here’s a quick summary of the activities below. You can find all the details and supply list in the activity plans.

1. Wash Your Hands Bin

This is a playful way to introduce hand washing to kids and help them get used to using soap. Pretend play is such a wonderful way to teach kids new skills. See more details in our Make Hand Washing Fun post.

little girl playing with a doll and a soap dispenser in a large plastic storage tub

2. Four Squares

This is a silly game to help kids count out 4 squares of toilet paper for wiping (or whatever number of TP squares is the rule at your house!).

3. Toy Teeth Brushing

This activity helps you use toys to get kids used to holding onto toothbrushes. It also gives kids positive experiences with toothbrushing that can help them feel less hesitant about brushing their own teeth.

little gurl using a toothbrush to brush her toy's teeth

4. Pom Pom Jar

This simple positive reinforcement activity can help you encourage kids to work on a select hygiene skill each week.

Download Printable Hygiene Skills Activity Plan HERE

Books and Movies about Hygiene

As part of this week’s plan, we shared some fun books and movie ideas that talk about hygiene skills like bathtime, toothbrushing, and hand washing.

Join us each week for our Kid Approved Life Skills School this summer.

We are taking simple important skills that kids need to learn and we are making them fun!

The activities are simple and hands-on.

The skills are ones that we think are important for kids to know as they become teens and adults.

We don’t have to wait until they are adults. We can start preparing them now!

Did you miss any of the skills we’ve shared so far? Find them on our Hands-On Life Skills Activities landing page HERE.

hygiene skills for kids- kids was brushing teeth, washing hands, playing with toys in a sink and brushing their teeth