My friend Andrea has two boys, one is a year older than my son and the other is a year younger. They have so much fun when they get together. Two years ago we made these volcanoes and they were a hit. Can you tell how cool the boys thought they were? I have so many cute pictures of this day, but I didn’t realize my camera was on a funky setting, so most of them are blurry. Sad face.
We got together this week for more science fun and today I am sharing FOUR ‘recipes’ that will make your kids think you are cool.
1. MAKE YOUR OWN VOLCANO
I found this recipe on Make and Takes. This is a great site for all kinds of kids crafts. For the complete recipe click here.
In a nutshell, you just mold playdoh all around a plastic water bottle (see the original recipe here to learn how to make the playdoh look gray). Let it harden/dry overnight on a cookie sheet with foil on it. Add some ‘characters’ that might be in ‘danger’ of the lava.
When you are ready to make your volcano ‘explode’ just add 1/3 cup baking soda using a funnel. Add some red food coloring to the vinegar and start pouring the vinegar into the bottle. Stand back and watch the magic happen. Our cute boys were so little. Sigh.
2. MAKE YOUR OWN LAVA LAMPS
Here are our boys this past week. Andrea’s youngest son even joined in on the fun this time since he is old enough now.
I have seen a couple of lava lamps on Pinterest, but the recipe we used came from Come Together Kids (another favorite of mine).
Directions
This one is simple. All you need is cooking oil, water, food coloring, an empty water bottle, and Alka Seltzer antacid tablets.
Add vegetable oil about 2/3 of the way, then fill with water leaving about an inch of open space. Add food coloring and wait for it to break through to the bottom and color the water.
Now, for the fun part.
Drop half of an Alka Seltzer (or as Andrea’s son called them the ‘magic pills’) into the bottle and watch the bubbles form.
The boys LOVED these. They could have done it over and over again. And the cool thing is they did. My son showed his sisters as soon as they got home and then of course he had to show daddy when he got home too!
3. HOW TO CREATE A TORNADO
I LOVE this one.
I can’t seem to find where I found this recipe? I had ‘pinned’ this recipe by Ellie Moon but this is not the recipe that I had printed out. Hmm… I like to give credit where it’s due, so if I find it I will definitely let you know. We will be trying the Ellie Moon one next time though since it seems like a bit of a different ‘spin’ to this one.
All you need for this is a jar (the taller the better), a butter knife, water, vinegar, dish soap, glitter (optional) and food coloring (optional)
Directions
Fill the jar three-quarters full of water and add one teaspoon of dish soap and one teaspoon of vinegar. Then add a few drops of food coloring. We also added some glitter!
Next, take a butter knife and swirl it around and around. Then pull out the knife and watch your tornado go.
For some reason the boys thought it made it go ‘faster’ when they blew on it. So, they just kept blowing and blowing. So cute! I could have done this one over and over. It was fun to watch it twirl. I also loved this one because you could quickly do this anytime.
They are fascinated.
4. MAKE MINI COLORED FAUX VOLCANOES
I had pinned this idea from Play At Home Mom and thought it would be fun to add to our experiments since we were using all of the same stuff anyway. This experiment is basically the same as the volcanoes minus the actual volcano.
Just take clear plastic cups, add some baking soda and put a few squirts of food coloring into each glass. Then add some vinegar and watch it explode!
I didn’t get as many pictures of this one. Apparently my son thought it looked so good that he decided to taste it. He was in for a big surprise and quickly learned that vinegar and baking soda do not taste good together. I wish you could have seen his face. 
I hope you will go out and experiment with your kiddos. It really doesn’t cost much or take that much time to gather everything.
The best part is that they will think you are an even more of a rock star mom (or dad, grandma, grandpa) than you already are!
~Jenny
