I’m excited to have Janae from Grumpy Grateful Mom guest posting for me today! She has something to share with us for Mama Teach Us Monday!
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I’ve been trying to get my kids excited about science. It’s so easy! There are countless experiments you can do and you may already have the ingredients.
On Friday, we had a Science Marathon! Some experiments were more successful than others. There was a mishap while we made our invisible lemon juice drawings. My three-year-old did a crying face plant after he thought someone stole his picture. But! It was mostly invisible, so it was a tricky mystery to solve.
Here were two of our easy and drama-free favorites:Magic Milk
You need:
milk (whole milk works best), food coloring, Q-tips, liquid dish soap
Fill the bottom of a small bowl with milk and let your child add several different types of food coloring to the milk. If you are thinking that the food coloring will get all over your child’s hands, clothes, and face–you are right! You may want to do it yourself or take several deep breaths before starting.
Next, give your child a Q-tip and let them roll the tip in some dish soap. Now have them dip the Q-tip into the center of the food coloring and watch the magic happen!
Before we started mixing, a bug decided to begin swirling the colors in my son’s bowl.
This method was also effective.
You need:
one small water or pop bottle, one funnel, hydrogen peroxide,
liquid dish soap, food coloring, one packet of yeast
Combine yeast and about 3/4 cup warm water. Set aside for five or more minutes. Add about 1/2 cup peroxide, 1/4 cup dish soap, and food coloring to the bottle. Swish around. Finally, add yeast mixture and quickly remove funnel. Then watch the toothpaste flow!
Warning!
If done outside, kids will feel the need to throw leaves and
clumps of grass into the pink foam.
While my children are young, my biggest goal is to make science interesting.
I try to ask my kids questions about what’s happening or see if they have a hypothesis
about what they expect to happen. And, they usually have some fun questions for me.
“Mom, why do you call it elephant toothpaste?
You shouldn’t because it’s not toothpaste and it’s not an elephant.”
Happy experimenting!
I love this, so fun!!!! The colors in the first experiment – beautiful. And the elephant toothpaste is genius. Thank you for sharing, Janae!
Thanks Alison! I thought the bug made the prettiest swirls.
What fun ideas!! I’d love to do these with my kids one day. Your kid’s smart for telling you why it shouldn’t be called elephant toothpaste!
You should try these. They’re so easy! My daughter is quite fond of sharing her sassy wisdom.
As a former elementary science teacher, this is a GREAT post!!! Ive done these too. Yes, making science interesting is the key! Love this post!!
Thanks! My kids have a hard time sitting still, but these held their attention.
I have enjoyed doing experiments with my children over the years. We have not done the Elephant toothpaste. Seems like something that my youngest might enjoy doing.
I hope you try it. It only takes a few minutes and is fun to watch.
I love all of these experiments! I’ve done some of them with my students but not with my own children. Must get on it!
Thanks Bruna! So thrilled to be guest posting on your site today!
Now these look like fun things to do outside with the kids. Outside of course.
Yes, outside! I do nearly all of my potentially messy kid activities outside in the summer, and my house is grateful.
love the experiments. I’m going to have to try those with my boys. They will love it #1 because it’s fun…#2 because it makes a mess. They LOVE messes!
My kids love messes too. The bigger the better. Sadly, they don’t love cleaning up the messes.
I’ve never seen Mama Teach Us before, so this has been a learning experience for me. This looks like something I could share with my Girl Scout Troop.
Thanks!
Sandy
Yes! I think your girl scouts would have fun with these.
These are just great!!! Thanks I need some tricks for next week when camp is over and school as not yet begun. I love the picture of you and the kids!! I am a huge fan of you and your blog! Thanks for introducing me to another great site!!
Thanks Kathy! You know the feeling is mutual. We have one more week before school starts. I can spend most of a day doing fun things with my kids, then just a few minutes after I’m done. “I’m sooo bored Mom.”
AWESOME! As always, you’re my hero!
Why thank you my overly kind friend. If only I could get my kids to feel that way about me.
Those are great ideas! I’m always trying to take notes of ideas like this b/c I want to be able to teach my kid when he gets older…but in fun ways like this!
You’re a great mom Natalie. You’re little guy has lots of fun days ahead.
Those look so fun! We’ve done the whole volcano w/ baking soda/vinegar deal, but never elephant toothpaste!
Elephant toothpaste would work great in a volcano. I hadn’t thought of that.
Those are exactly the kind of thing I did with the kids. I’m soooo into stuff like that! I want to do this myself now!!!!
I could do these myself too. Glad to know you would do them with me.
VERY cool! The elephant toothpaste is something I’ve never seen before!
This is just a toned down version of the real experiment. With stronger ingredients, it truly is elephant sized.
Your kiddos will forever remember those days with you! I can’t wait to do those things with my kiddos in a couple of yrs
I hope they remember these times more than me getting after them all day.
Oh oh oh! I wanna play! My kids would love this. Hope to try it this week& I’ ll tell you what happens.
Good luck! May your messes not be too big.
The floating toothpaste from an elephant would be wonderful to try outside.
Yes, this one is much more fun (for me) outdoors.
Very fun ideas!! My hubs made a tornado funnel in a coke liter bottle… and I bought some corn starch to show how things go from solid to liquid b/c I always thought it was such a fun thing to play with in school… these look fun… great ideas girl!
I’ve never made the tornado. But, I used to play with corn starch for hours when I was younger.
These are awesome! I’m going to do the Magic Milk ASAP! The boys will love it! The Elephant’s toothpaste looks fabulous! A perfect experiment for when the baby is napping!
You are so creative! I would have never thought of these!
Good luck! I did both experiments when the baby was napping. That’s much less stress for me. I wish I was so amazing. Both of these experiments are just versions of experiments that have been around for awhile.
wow this is amazing. I can start teaching my kids science now with these awesome experiments!
Thanks Marina! I liked these experiments because of the colors.
SO FUN! Now I have a project for school tomorrow.
Thanks!
elissa
I hope they go well!
Those are great experiments! No wonder you found all that stuff like the broken egg on the couch and stuff…they are scientists!
Sadly, my steam vac sucked up all of their broken egg experiment. I don’t think we’ll repeat that one…I hope.
As a science teacher, I often find great ideas on http://www.experiland.com for my students. They have some really fun science experiments for kids to do at home as well and come highly recommended by other homeschooling sites!
Their experiments are well laid out and easy to follow…Good luck!