Fun science

Since Cole has started preschool, I have noticed that he really does love learning.  He particularly seems to enjoy the science experiments they do at preschool.  Those are always the ones he tells me about when I pick him up.  He loved learning about the 5 senses by getting to sample some foods, among them, M&Ms.  He was also very excited to see what happened to the wishbone they had put in vinegar, an experiment which we have decided to replicate at home as well.  We just put the wishbone in the vinegar yesterday, so far, not too much has happened.

So, I have started doing some science experiments with the boys at home as well.  They are always very excited for them and thanks to Pinterest, I have found some really fun ones! Today we had some fun with food coloring.  First, we learned about absorption, using an experiment I found  here.

First, we put blue colored water into one cup and yellow colored water into another.  Then, we rolled up 2 sheets of paper towel and stuck them into the cups of colored water, with the other end in the empty cup in the centre.

  At first, the boys were quite excited to see what it did and had fun speculating what was going to happen.

 However, the experiment took longer than I expected, and longer than my 4 year old's attention span lasts! The end result is that the colored water is supposed to travel up the paper towels and drip into the 3rd cup, where it will combine to form green.  The boys were able to hold out long enough to see the water travel up the paper towels and the blue begin to drip into the third cup. (With the help of another experiment in the meantime)  And then C got impatient and just dumped both cups into the third cup!  He was pleased to see that the water turned green though.

He then spent the next half hour or so playing with the cups and paper towel and making it into a bunny!

The littlest one figured he needed to get in on the fun too and found the bottle of yellow food coloring that I had dropped on the floor.  And so our unplanned experiment - "What happens when the baby finds a bottle of food coloring?"  Ooops!  Hope I can get that out of his overalls!  I like those overalls!  (So far, Oxyclean seems to be doing the trick, and a good bath took care of my baby looking like he was in liver failure!)





While we waited for the colored water and paper towels to do their thing, we decided to see what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar.  Always a favorite experiment!  I decided to spice it up a bit by using colored water and a turkey baster.

 The boys were quite impressed with the fizzing.  Once they had used up all the colored vinegar, they wanted to get their hands into it.  Somehow, all our science experiments and art projects - or any involving paint, anyway - end up with a couple pairs of hands splashing around in them! Must be because I have boys! :)

  And that was how we spent a chilly Thursday afternoon.  It occupied a good hour or so of our time, and despite the splashing, didn't make too much of a mess.  Well, other than on the baby!

Oh, and see that overabundance of toys in the background of the last picture?  Yeah, we could open our own toy store!  One of these days, I need to do something about that!  Maybe that will be a future blog post...