Beating the Heat... Our Summer Fun With Ceramics at Home

I was taking the kids (squirrels??) to the grocery store the other day and the Ceramics At Home store I have always wondered about caught my eye.  I decided to take the kids in there and see what it was all about.  Basically you pay for your ceramic pieces (which are really not too expensive considering) and can paint them there for no additional cost or they will send paint home and you can paint them at home for no additional cost.  You also pay a firing fee on top of the ceramic fee, though.  If you like them on facebook, they post lots of specials, and they also publish a calendar with daily specials. 

The kids each picked a ceramics piece and wanted to paint it at the store.  They really took their time and enjoyed painting.  They were a little bummed they had to wait a few days to get their pieces once they were painted, but waiting is just one of those fun things you have to learn in life.  They were VERY excited to pick them up, and they were ready in just 2 days!  We will definitely do it again!

 

The girls needed some help but Conner did his by himself.  They all 3 had a blast!

 

 

 

Beating the Heat... Our Summer Fun with FOAM!

Warning, this was messy, but the kids loved it!!

Another warning.... I can't find the link we used for the recipe, but I know it was somewhere on this site... http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/01/play-recipes.html.  We are finding tons of fun activities on that blog that the kids are loving! 

Another warning... I repeat, this is messy.

Ingredients: Corn Starch, Shaving Cream, and Food Coloring...  Add shaving cream, dump in enough corn starch until your level is right, then add food coloring.  Not technical but that's what we did. 

 

Beating the Heat.... Our Summer Fun with Lava Lamps

This was a FAVORITE for the kiddos.  We've done it again, and again, and again, and... well, you get the idea!!  It's so easy and fun!

You can find the directions here... http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/lava-lamp/. 

The clearer the oil, the better you will see the reaction.

Here are some photos of our fun....

 

Beating the Heat... Our Summer Fun With Making Snow

All you need is.....

 

 

 

 

And you can make snow!! 

 

Here's how... http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/01/erupting-snow-recipe.html

 

You can even make it explode with vinegar... so fun!!

 

Just know it IS messy, and until it gets to "snow" consistency, well, it's going to get everywhere.  We went outside and the kids had a blast!  We've done it a few times now.  Here are a few pictures of the fun!

 

 

Beating the Heat... Our Summer Fun with Marshmallow Catapults

When I saw the instructions for this on itsalwaysautumn.com, I knew my kiddos would love it!  We made them today and they were easy and fun.

What you need...

1. Large or jumbo marshmallows
2. Plastic spoons
3. Rubber bands
4. Tape
5. Skewers
6. Something to launch (m&m's, small marshmallows, marbles, etc....)

What to do...

First make your base with 3 skewers and 3 marshmallows...

 

 

Next add the top of your pyramid using 3 more skewers and 1 more marshmallow...

 



Tape the spoon to a skewer.  Put 1 rubber band over the marshmallow on the top, so that it goes just under it.  Put the spoon/skewer through the rubber band and in to a marshmallow...

 

 

Have fun launching stuff!!  

 



 

Beating the Heat... Our Summer Fun with Exploding Sidewalk Art

My kiddos had a lot of fun making exploding sidewalk art.  We found the directions at http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/05/play-recipe-sidewalk-chalk.html.  (Ramya was still eating (after 1 hour, we begin our activities, we can only wait so long, and even the smallest meals take over an hour to eat most days, for every single meal), so she didn't help with set up, but she did enjoy watching them explode.)

Here's what we did...

First gather your supplies.  You need a box of corn starch, a container of white vinegar, a box of baking soda, Ziploc bags, and paper towels. 


Add 4 tablespoons of corn starch to a bag...

 

 

Add 1/2 cup of white vinegar...

 

 

Mix it together and then add in a few drops of food coloring...



 

Be prepared for a mess....

 

Store all of your bags together.  We put ours in a small plastic bin.

 

 

 

Make baking soda pillows by pouring a nice big pile of baking soda in a paper towel and fold it up.  We kept ours in a bag to keep them closed.

 

 

 

Go outside.  Take one chalk bag and put one "pillow" in it.  Zip it up very quickly, shake well, and quickly put it down.  It should pop.  Ours didn't pop on their own, so we helped them.  The girls didn't want to run over them with their wheelchairs, but Conner had no problems running and jumping on them.

 

 

 

Here's a video of one popping....

 



 

 

We talked a bit about why mixing the vinegar and baking soda caused a reaction, which they thought was interesting. 

 

The kids declared this their favorite summer experiment so far!







 

Beating the Heat... Our summer Fun with Growing Gummy Bears

My goal this summer is to take a break from our more formal homeschool learning, filling our summer with fun experiments and crafts instead.  Our latest experiment was called Growing Gummy Bears and we found it here.  The kids had a lot of fun!  Here are a few pictures of the process...

 We made journals to draw what the gummy bears looked like each day and also to write our hypothesis and conclusion in.

 

 

We put the gummy bears in water (one cup for each child), a cup of sparkling flavored water, juice, and oil.  They kids hypothesized that the gummy bear would grow in each liquid except for the oil.

 

We also used our five senses to describe our gummy bears and made a chart to show our findings.

 

Day 1

 

Day 4...  The 3 in water grew, the one in sparkling water was just a bunch of random floating pieces, the one in juice was also just random floating pieces, and the one in oil was the same size as when it went in. 

 

 

The kids loved it!  

 

Beating the Heat, Our Summer Fun.... Green Kid Craft Box

My kiddos loved their Kiwi Crate craft boxes that we got in the past.  We stopped for a bit and did the Magic School Bus kits instead, but they were missing their Kiwi Crate.  I decided to try something new, and signed up for a Green Kid Craft box instead.  We have only done one box so far, but my kids really liked it!

At first, I thought it was called the "green" kid craft box because everything in it was earth friendly and non-toxic.  Though I think that's part of it, the activities are also very "green", meaning a lot of them teach about nature (or at least they have so far... I just got our next box in and it also seems to be nature-ish). 

Our first month's box taught about botany and had lots of activities to teach the kiddos about plants.  There was leaf collecting, pressing, and rubbing, as well as some extension activities to teach about the parts of plants, etc...  Oh, and little boxes to decorate and keep plants in.  It also came with the books for leaf rubbings, crayons, and scissors, so no extra supplies were needed.  They really loved it!  We had a few extra kiddos too, and they loved it as well!

 

 

 

 

I think we will try it a few more months at least.  I'm glad the kids are loving it!  If you want to check out the Green Kid Craft Box, click here , and for $5 off a discovery box, science kit, or creativity kit, use code TAKE5SP .