I've had my hands full the last few days. I've been watching my two nephews (ages 2 & 8) and my niece (age 4) and my own son (age 1.5). It has been a real treat for me! The draw back? They are used to coming to my house and doing projects - it's what we do. I love to do crafts and activities with the little ones. It keeps them entertained and their little minds growing. Today was the last day of watching them this week and I was drained - so we did a little science experiment I found on Pinterest. It didn't have a specific blog like a lot of other posts I go through did, but you can find it at: http://indulgy.com/post/yEzmaJ9sE1/drop-vinegar-tinted-with-food-coloring-onto-a-pa
And, if you were to just type in "food coloring vinegar baking soda" in a Pinterest search, it would give you all kinds of ideas and basically the general format.
Normally, projects with the little ones is a highlight for me - but with two toddlers running around, crafting time with the two older ones can be challenging. This project was great because all 4 of the kids could enjoy it.
All I had to do was mix some food coloring in with some white vinegar and put some baking soda on a platter. I used an old, cleaned out medicine dropper and squirted the food colored vinegar onto the baking soda and enjoyed watching the kids' amazement as our own little science experiment took place. The baking soda fizzed as soon as the vinegar hit it and the colors spread - it was pretty neat to look at.
The colors weren't as vibrant as what I had seen on Pinterest, but it was a nice color combination, just the same. The kids all took turns squeezing the vinegar out of the dropper and onto the baking soda, which was a nice little bonus for the two younger ones as it helped work on their fine motor skills too! The two older kids enjoyed mixing the colors later to get different color combinations. It took quite a while for the fizziness and the excitement to go away, but here's what it looked like as the liquid was just starting to dominate the baking soda.
Not very pretty, no. But was it entertaining? Absolutely! My nephew and my son, who have the attention span of grasshoppers, both enjoyed this activity for nearly a half hour while my niece and my older nephew enjoyed it for another half hour when the little ones were done. It continued to fizzle until everyone was done playing. Quite entertaining, enjoyable and a good way to keep them busy for a while. I'd recommend it.
I did see some other idea on Pinterest of things to do for this experiment - like using a spoon instead of just a medicine dropper, putting the baking soda in cups and adding a little vinegar - that's what I want to try next! That looked like a little bit of volcano-action! Anyway, I'd recommend checking out some ideas on Pinterest, but just know that this little experiment is a hit! No matter how you accomplish it. At least it was at my house.
And just so we don't end on the ugliness that is the "science experiment" picture, here is a picture of what my nephew and my son (the half naked one) did after they finished with the experiment. You'll never hear me say toddlers are too young to do the dishes... :)
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