Yes, it's Wednesday already and I'm only now getting around to blogging about last week. At least I can't complain (yet) about the summer dragging on! We had another fun and busy week last week, but our plans got changed a little at the end of the week - so we did a little less activities and a little more playdates with friends :)
So last week our "theme" was MAD SCIENCE. Some of our stuff worked - other stuff, not so much, lol.
* Monday - We started some rock candy, using these instructions. The plan was to eat it on Friday, but for some reason we got NO crystals at all. I think that the seed crystals we created by rolling the skewers in sugar just disolved and left nothing to start the crystals growing. The kids were disappointed, but it was a lesson in how not all science experiments work.
We also did some colour mixing in test tubes - and I was amazed at how long both kids were kept entertained! We happened to have some plastic test tubes and pipettes, which I filled with water and added a few drops of food colouring to. The kids sucked up colours with the pipettes and transferred to other test tubes. We ended up with a lot of messy spillage, and a lot of brown-ish black liquid but they both spent a long time seeing what happened to the colours, and honing their fine motor skills. Success!
* Tuesday - The kids had their first swimming lesson! As predicted my big girl (who was a mermaid in another life I think) loved it and was in her element. My baby boy on the other hand screamed, kicked and fussed for most of the lesson. He screamed "I want my Mummy" at the top of his lungs every time the instructor came near him. Not much fun.
We also headed to the library for their free arts and crafts activity - where we created an artists book of places we'd like to visit. Fun! Can't say how much I love that our local library has so much happening this summer - they've been a lifesaver already!!!!
* Wednesday - Today we headed out to meet friends at the $1 movie ! So nice to be able to take all the kids to the movies for so cheap, and always fun to meet up with friends. We also did a little shopping there (for the Mums, not the kids!) and had pizza for lunch.
When we got home we did a quick experiment with ivory soap and the microwave - very cool! My main tip for this one is to cut the ivory soap into quarters - for 2 reasons, 1) it will expand and with a whole bar you may end up with soap all over your microwave! and 2) they WILL ask to do it again :)
* Thursday - In the morning we headed back out to our beloved library - their show this week was none other than Mad Science! We also collected the kids first prizes for reading 10 books - we got tickets to the baseball!!! And also bubbles, erasers, a recorder and an inflatable globe. The show was fun too.
Then we had another swimming lesson, which went off much better - thankfully!
In the afternoon we tried to do a couple more experiments at home - we did the mentos and coke experiment outside. I think I was considered the coolest Mum ever after than one!! But not quite as cool as these guys!
We also did magic balloons - I found the protocol in an activity book of my daughter's. I put some baking soda in a couple of new uninflated balloons, put some vinegar in some empty water bottles and then put the balloons on the tops of the bottles. When the balloons are on the bottles you empty the baking soda into the vinegar and it fizzes, releasing carbon dioxide, which in turn blows up the balloons. It worked really well, but I used entirely too much baking soda and vinegar so the balloons got liquid in them too. The protocol calls for 4 TBS vinegar in the bottle, and 2TBS baking soda in the balloon - I'm sure that would be plenty!
Week 3 is half over already - and the theme is Fairytales!
What a fun week!
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