Science 1o1

Mommy, can we do a craft?

Mommy, can we play in rice?

Mommy, we want to make a mess!

Okay so maybe they don't say that last one but that is what I hear when they ask for those other things. A mess. But here is the thing with me...I really don't mind the mess. I am the mom who stands back and watches her child smash three different colors of playdoh together. Yes, I really did say that! It doesn't bother me. It used to but after watching my boys learn and explore while doing these things it really does not bother me. Mommy, can we paint? Sure, why not? Just take off your shirts first!  So where am I going with this? Exploration, I feel, is something that is so important for my boys to be doing. I try and try to get them to sit down and work on letters or counting but they honestly could care less. So I figure if i can get them intrigued with a little exploration why not use it to my benifit and teach them with that. 

Our experiement for todays post was something I remember doing in my elementary school days. Liquids have different densities which can keep them from mixing together. 

Here is what you will need for this experiement:

5 clear containers (I used empty baby food jars size 2 and 3)

Water

Dish Soap

Baby Wash

Oil

(You can use different liquids, these are just what I had on hand. The baby wash and dish soap didn't seperate very well because they are pretty similar to each other)

orange-water (we added food coloring)

green-dish soap

blue - baby wash (with blue food coloring)

clear/yellow - oil

Pour equal amounts of each liquid into the jars. Keep one empty so you can combine them all together in it.

Slowly add, one at a time, the liquids into the jars. Eli and Zeke loved doing this part.

And then watch! We sat and watched the jar for about 20 minutes. 

watching....

watching...

The blue food coloring was probably a bad idea as it tinted the other liquids. I would recommend trying to find different liquids that are all ready a different color and you don't have to add food coloring to.

a view from the top

We decided to shine a flash light behind the jar to see if we could see the two middle layers better. Yup, it worked! You can see the different layers pretty good with the help of a little light. 

They thought this was so much fun to do. 

Then Daddy had a fun idea...add some milk! 

The milk is made of mostly fat and so it balled up in the liquid making little round clumps. The boys thought this was pretty awesome!

Ohhh thats pretty cool!

It was pretty fun exploring what happened when we mixed these all together and it was a great 'hands on' experiment for the boys to do. One tip to remember when doing these kinds of activities is to have every thing prepped and ready to go ahead of time so that when actual exploring is happening everything is ready and the boys can do it all on their own (with some cues from mommy of course).