Baking Soda Eruptions

 It's been a while since we last messed around with baking soda and vinegar at our house. Sharli loves all things bubbles, so I decided to introduce her to some new fun. As I often do, I prepped the materials and placed them in front of her without any instruction from me. All you need is a shallow dish filled with baking soda, a small cup of vinegar (add a few drops of food coloring for some extra kid points), and an eye dropper/pipette/syringe.

 Sharli had never used an eye dropper before, so at first she wasn't entirely sure what to do. With a little help getting that part figured out, she was ready to rock and roll.

 This activity was a huge hit! She played with this until there was not a single bit of baking soda left untouched by the vinegar.

 In fact, this was so successful that we did it several times over the next week. I was able to set it up for her and then leave her to do her thing while I packed for our big move to Arizona.

Science, fine motor development, and babysitter all in one? Count me in!!

Baking Soda Bubbles

I found the idea for the great letter B science activity here, and while it's not anything ground breaking or new, it's still a fun one. Especially when you have a goofball like this to work with:

For your supplies, you'll need:

vinegar

baking soda

dish soap

water

an empty bottle

a small bowl

a wash cloth

a funnel

a cake pan or cookie sheet to contain any spills

*Check the original website  for amounts and more detailed instructions

Erik loved helping me do the prep work. He is very interested in measuring, pouring, mixing, and just about anything that goes on in the kitchen. 

 This is just your classic baking soda/vinegar eruption, but when you add a cloth soaked in soapy water over the top of your container you get a surprise.

 BUBBLES!!!

We played around with the soapy cloth for a while, then we just took it off and just played around with the baking soda and vinegar (and maybe a bit of food coloring...) 

Even Sharli (who does get to wear cute girly clothes more often then not, despite the fact that for some reason they never seem to make it into the pictures on our blog) really enjoyed watching what was going on. She was right there in her highchair the whole time observing our every move. And pigging out on crackers, but what's a good show without some munchies?

Colorful Bubble Eruptions

Here is the part 2 of Wyler Week, Hope you enjoy!!

Carolyn says:
I've seen different versions of this on Pinterest and Facebook.  I just threw it together from memory.

I took a 9x9 inch baking dish and covered the bottom of the pan with baking soda.  I then filled a glass with vinegar and food coloring (first time I did this I did two different colors)

 I used 2 syringes (that came with our baby Tylenol) I wish I had eye droppers, then this would be something Wyler could do on his own, but he doesn't quite have the finger strength to fill a syringe easily yet.  I filled a syringe with the yellow vinegar, passed it to him, and we watch the foaming bubbles as he shot it into the vinegar. 

 While he emptied one syringe I would fill the other, as he was too excited to wait for me to fill only one, he didn't want to pause the bubble action at all. 

  After we had emptied the vinegar into the pan he stirred it up with the syringes to get the last of the vinegar and baking soda to react.  He would have kept at this activity longer, but he ran out of the baking soda. 

  Next time I'll use a larger pan, and hopefully have the eye droppers for him to use.  And the syringes are going to make an appearance in the bath so he can practice filling them, and strengthening his fingers.

Salt and Glue Science

I saw this fun science experiment on Pinterest and knew it would be a great one for Erik. Fine motor skills have always been one of his weakest areas, so anything I can do to challenge him in that area is awesome. 

I took some note cards and used white school glue to write the letter A on them. Then, I covered these in salt and (because I didn't actually read the instructions before doing this) left them to dry overnight. The next morning I mixed some food coloring in some water and turned Erik loose with a medicine dropper. 

 The idea is that the child is supposed to be able to watch as the salt absorbs the liquid, so they get to observe absorption and color mixing, all while working out their little fingers. I don't know if it's because I let the glue dry first, but it seemed like all it took was one good squirt of colored water and each letter was completely colored. Adding more liquid just made a puddle on the card. All the fun was over WAY to quickly for Erik, who was enjoying the eye dropper, so we decided to recreate this activity and extend the fine motor practice/fun.

 Set up was easy, just dump some baking soda in a pan, and mix some food coloring into some vinegar. Turn your kid loose and go read a book. Or stay and play because it really is fun!

At first, Erik just kept squirting the vinegar in the same place, which actually created a fun effect. It took a few minutes before he branched out into the rest of the soda, but when he did he really went for it! 

As with everything we do, he tried to turn it into finger painting, but that ended up getting too much soda in the vinegar, which neutralized the acid and we lost the ability to make bubbles. Oh well, we still had fun!
I think both the ideas are ones we'll try again. I want to see what the salt/glue activity does when you actually follow the directions, and Erik would think I was the best mom in the world if I turned him loose with the baking soda and vinegar again!

Little Helping Hands

Toddlers are just dying to do whatever the big people are doing. Everything I do, I have a little shadow right behind me. While I have to admit this can be frustrating, I try really hard to keep it positive. As long as he WANTS to be mopping the floor, cooking, vacuuming, sweeping, doing dishes, etc I might as well encourage him to do it. It would be silly to wait until he's big enough to be helpful, and maybe less interested, to start teaching him how to do these daily housekeeping chores. You've already seen him getting involved in cooking dinner, but here a few more ways he likes to help out around the house. One that I don't have pictures of is him scrubbing the floor. I think that's his favorite.

If you want to help your kiddo get involved in things like scrubbing the bathroom (or any other job usually associated with harsh cleaners), it's a good idea to look into gentle cleaners that are safe on a baby's soft skin. I make home made cleaners (using mainly vinegar and baking soda) that work great, and I didn't have to worry for a second when Erik decided to get involved in scrubbing the oven. 

Obviously, you get a little free labor out of this one (although remember, you get what you pay for) but there are some other benefits as well. Depending on the job you two are doing, your toddler may be learning/practicing hand-eye coordination, building both large and small muscles, learning new words to add to his vocabulary, building his self worth as he becomes a more integral part of the family and helps with important jobs, and experiences the sensory wonderland of sights, smells, and sounds that come along with every day tasks.

Letter B Preschool Activities

We had a lot of fun with our letter B activities. Here's our lesson plan so you can join in the fun. Hope you have as much fun as we did!

Language Development:
     -Read LOTS of books

Math Concepts:
     -Beach Math

Social Studies
     -A Book About Me

Science
     -Baking Soda Bubbles

Health and Physical Development:
     -Filling up a B (fine motor)
     -Bashing Baked Cotton Balls (Gross Motor)

Creative Arts:

     -Letter B Butterfly Craft