Science Play the 3 1/2 Year Old Way

One of the my daughter's fave concepts to explore in her play is that of Cause and Effect. Most kids love it; think of the tots turning lights on and off, playing with the TV remote, and pressing buttons on the dishwasher, - all are great examples of kiddies testing out cause and effect!
This can also be easily demonstrated with a simple experiment. Mixing bicarb soda and vinegar! As we know, the vinegar makes the soda fizz and bubble. This is because the bicarbonate in the soda and the acid in the vinegar react to create carbonic acid which is unstable and causes the bubbles. Sounds complex and of course, you don't have to go into this explanation with your little ones (I surely didn't!). 

Eden simply found out that mixing the soda and vinegar was FUN!
I put a fair bit of bicarb soda into a brownie tin, and portioned out vingear into some egg cups. I dyed it with food dye ('cause it just looks prettier that way!), gave her some spoons and a medicine dropper, and stood back.

She began by adding drops of the coloured vinegar to the tray and watching the little bubbles burble and pop, quickly progressing to putting whole eggcups in the tray and adding pinches of soda to the eggcups, watching delightedly as they fizzed over!

An Invitation to Paint

Sometimes, it's all in the approach. I have found that if I present an activity to my kids in a visually appealing way, they are on board! This is especially effective if I set it up as a surprise - they go to bed for a nap, wake up and ... oh, look! It's a painting station!

Playdough Station

Yay for playdough! I have yet to meet a parent who hasn't had some of this stuff stashed away for rainy days. Even though we don't play with it often, my kids tend to be either completely absorbed in playdough or completely disinterested. To try and curb their recent lack of interest, I set up a Playdough Station whilst they were napping/having quiet time. I loved the expressions on their sweet faces when they woke up to see what was waiting for them - pure excitement!

Painting on a Grand Scale

I am hoping to make BIG paintings a regular part of my daughter's lives, partly for the memories they create, partly because they make for some great art, but mostly because they are so darn FUN!

As it is, painting is always encouraged in our home; Ava (1) is happy to paint with whatever on whatever at any time, but I think that Eden (3) was getting frustrated with painting on a small-ish scale, or otherwise painting on paper. We had done some canvas painting before, and painting on hardboards, but I thought it was time to change it up.

Buying pre-framed and primed canvas can be pricey, especially large ones, so I was super excited when I found ours at the Reject Shop for $18 for a 75cm x 100cm canvas. We got three (one for each set of grandparents and one to keep).

We used a bit of watered down poster paint/tempera paint in the three colours she chose: I only watered it down so that it was a more runny consistency which makes it easier for little artists to spread across big areas.

Chef or Pharmacist?

Eden loves to cook, in both the real sense and the play sense. The other day she asked if I could make her a kitchen outside so that she could cook like Mummy. Five minutes later and she was all set up!

Paint: Experiment # 1

Eye droppers are handy little things. We've used eye droppers for all sorts of activities in our home (except as an actual eye dropper, oddly enough), and the most recent of these activities was in a watercolour experiment.

Little Miss E. was all set to do some standard watercolour painting whilst Mummy was cooking, until she spied the eye dropper and asked to use it (she loves transferring coloured water with them, see here for an example with a medicine dropper). Everything was already set up for watercolour painting, so I suggested experimenting with the paint using the eye dropper. Oh boy, did she go for it!

Get Your Inner Artist On!

Who knew that watercolour paper was sooo expensive? It is! From my point of view, $15 for a dozen A5 sized sheets is steep. So when I spotted an A5 size pad (12 sheets) for a happy two-buckeroos, I snatched it up like I was in training for a Gucci samples sale. But what to do with it? The obvious - a watercolour painting - seemed a little uninspired, so we changed it up a bit.

Playdough Sweet Shoppe

I was recently invited to a local church (shout out to Kaliedescope!) to do something special for the little ones in the18 months - 4 year age bracket. As anyone with kids knows, there's a broad range of abilities in that age group, so my challenge was to come up with something that the older kids would still enjoy that the little ones could do as well. 

In the end, I made a few batches of scented and coloured playdough (strawberry, vanilla and choccy) and raided my craft box and kitchen pantry for supplies to make....(brrrrrrrrr - that's a drumroll. There's no good way to spell it, trust me)... a Playdough Sweet Shoppe!

Spaghetti Sensory Tub

Having seen this great idea crop up in a few spots around the web (I first spotted it at The Imagination Tree), I decided to whip up a batch of sensory spaghetti to entertain my little 3 year old on a bad day.

It was a cinch to prepare: cook spaghetti as per usual, divide into bowls, add some drops of food dye and cooking oil to each bowl (so it doesn't become one big solid-but-mushy-clump), and mix through.

Petal Play

A lovely guest recently bought me some white roses, and when they had died and I was about to bin them, inspiration struck! I plucked the (not dead) petals, and put them in a tub in an inch of water with a dash of rosewater to heighten the scent...

For a bit of interest, I added a few drops of food colouring: a bit of yellow, blue and red. Eden thought it was pretty amazing to see the coloured water swirl around and make new colours (a bit of colour mixing learning added to sensory play never hurt anyone!), but in the end it was a big ol' tub of brownish-purpley water. 

Moon Sand - Attempt #1

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, our first batch of Moon Sand did not quite turn out as intended. Nevertheless, it was still loads of fun to play with , so I ended up renaming our particular version 'Moon Crumble' (because, as my mum pointed out, it felt more like apple crumble than wet sand). Moon Sand is, of course, meant to feel like wet sand, but it is much more user friendly for those of us who live an hour or so from the beach (like moi!) or those of us who don't otherwise have easy access to sand.

Jelly Jelly Jelly!

If you're anything like me, finding something to keep your baby stimulated can present quite a challenge. I get tired of offering toys to my Ava (8 months), and there are so many things her big sister Eden (3 years) gets to do because she's older, which Ava cannot (choking hazards, motor skills required which she has not yet developed, etc). This is especially true when your baby is in the I-think-I-will-put-everything-into-my-mouth phase, with sensory exploration becoming trickier still!
So, I'm always on the look out for new, safe sensory experiences for my baby girl, preferably ones she can enjoy in her highchair whilst I cook dinner! We've done water play and fingerpainting, so this time I took my cue from her passion for her finger foods and made a batch of jelly, with Eden's help of course.

Scrubbing Shells

Such a simple activity! Eden loves to clean. I mean, this girl LOVES to clean. So, I set her up with a shallow tub with some water in it, a pouring cup, an old toothbrush (for scrubbing), a face washer (for drying) and a container with shaving cream in it ('cause let's face it, shaving cream is fun to play with!), and laid a towel on the floor to mop up any spills.

Fingerpainting for Babies

Who says babies can't fingerpaint? A little ingenuity and a willingness to see your child (and floor, and any adjacent surfaces) covered in muck, and you'll have yourself a fun-filled half-hour or so with your little munchkin.
Although non-toxic poster paint/acrylic paint is, well, non-toxic, I still feel apprehensive about letting Ava anywhere near it. Especially whilst she's in the 'how-can-I-fit-everything-in-sight-into-my-mouth' phase. So I mixed a bit of plain flour with some water and food dye, and came up with my own version of fingerpaint which is safe for babies. It's not a substitute for actual fingerpaint though (ie: the stuff you would use for your toddler, or for use on paper), but it served my purposes just fine.

The paint:

Oobleck

Strange name, strange substance. Oobleck defies Newton's third law of motion (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction): if you pour oobleck it behaves like a liquid, but if you hit it, it behaves like a solid. In other words, you could slowly immerse your hand in it (would be liquid), then try to pull your hand out again quickly and you'd have trouble (would be solid)!

Egg Carton Stamping

For last week's Play Time Challenge (to use an egg carton, see here for the post), I thought it might be fun to try egg carton printing. First of all, I cut the carton up like so:

Bubbles Challenge Part 2

I thought I'd tackle some bubble painting with Eden for this weeks Play Time Challenge, but unfortunately it did not go as well as planned. To do bubble painting, you need a container, powdered paint/s, detergent, straws and paper. You mix 1/4 cup of detergent in with some powdered paint to get the colour you want, then get your child to blow into the paint mix with a straw to form lots of little bubbles (which stay in the container and don't pop). You'll need to make the colour extremely bright in the mix because once the bubbles pop on the paper, they're much paler. Once the bubbles are overflowing the container, take your paper and carefully roll it around on top of the bubbles, but don't press down. The result should look like coloured bubbles have burst on your paper.
I don't have any powdered paint, and I don't plan on getting any (pretty expensive stuff), so I used normal non-toxic poster paint. I poured a fair wallop of if in to make the colour vibrant but that meant that the detergent was too diluted and the bubbles didn't, well, bubble properly. They certainly didn't overflow the container. So I had to grab some much smaller bits of paper to dip into the containers instead. The whole thing was a bit of a debacle, but Eden didn't seem to notice. She was to preoccupied with blowing bubbles into the paint mix to notice that our activity wasn't going as planned. Suits me! Will definitely try this again and adjust the detergent to paint ratio and see how we go.
A note: if you're going to try this, maybe get your toddler to practice blowing through the straw first, the last thing you want is for them to accidently inhale the paint mix. They could blow bubbles into a cup of water, blow pom poms or cotton wool balls around, blow on your face, etc. 

Coloured Rice

So simple to make, so easy to use and it provides you with so many play options! I made a few batches of coloured rice yesterday (see the recipe if you want to try it, cinch!) and set up a 'pouring and transferring' table for Eden. I just laid a sheet on the floor, put some mixed coloured rice into a roasting tray and gave her a broad serving spoon (to use as a shovel), a funnel and a cup. Then I put some rice into containers by colour, so she could mix it up herself. As you can see in the photos, she really enjoyed it, and it occupied her in some quiet, solo play for over an hour (woo-hoo)!
          

For a different experience, I set it up again this afternoon with bits from her tea set and some of her play pots, pans and utensils. She had a ball serving rice tea and pouring it from the teapot into the cups (see below).

          

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At nearly six months old, Ava is obviously to young to play with rice in the same way as Eden, so I put some rice into a medium sized ziplock bag and put a few little objects in it (see photo below) and sealed the bag up with masking tape. She mushes it around with her hands (and her feet) to find the objects hidden by the rice. It's actually a very tactile activity for her, even though she's feeling the objects through the plastic, but obviously requires supervision, just in case the bag breaks.

          

Other coloured rice activities which I intend to try include:

• Pouring some into plastic bottles to form shakers.
• Pouring some into a cardboard cylinder and sealing up the ends, getting your tot to decorate the cylinder with stickers or oil-based crayons to make some more shakers!
• Drawing a basic picture (or a letter/number) onto stiff cardboard with a thick marker, covering the picture with PVC and letting your littlie sprinkle rice over it. Leave to set for a few minutes, then shake off the excess.
• Using the rice to make some beanbags (ok, ricebags) from felt. You'd obviously have to do the sewing yourself, but your toddler could 'paint' a picture on the bags with fabric paint, or they could superglue sequins or lace onto it. 

I'm sure there are heaps of other ideas out there, feel free to post ideas you have in the comments section! ~ L.

This post has been linked to Baby Play Friday at Sense of Wonder.

Playing with Playdough

An oldie, but a goodie.
If you choose to make your own playdough, why not involve your child too? Does your tot still think playdough is tasty? Try making edible playdough (see recipe). Is your littlie sick of playdough? Why not mix it up a bit? You could:

• Add glitter or sequins to the dough for a bit of fun.
• Introduce some of your latest loot from your walks - give your child sticks, pebbles, leaves and flowers to play around with. Tip: try rolling the playdough flat and showing your child how to press leaves, etc, into it for some interesting imprints.
• Raid your kitchen drawers for cookie cutters (plastic are best for the kiddies), rolling pins, a garlic press, potato mashers, tea strainers, ice cube trays, muffin tins, patty pans and whatever else you can think of!
• Get some icy-pole sticks or coloured matchsticks and use them to build things with the playdough acting as bluetack - try houses, animals, etc.
• When you're nearly done with the playdough, and ready to throw if away, mould it into shapes and use to do some stamp painting.
• If you're making your own, add a drop or two of food colouring to a portion of uncoloured playdough, but don't knead it through! Give it to your child as is, and watch their faces as they play with the dough and see the colours spread!

I'm sure there are many, many more ideas out there, please share them with us via the comments. Enjoy!

Fingerpainting!

Whether it's feeling the paint on their hands, creating their masterpiece or getting the chance to do something different; for whatever reason, every toddler LOVES fingerpainting! As expected, it is a messy activity which entails a lot of clean up and a bit of preparation, so give yourself plenty of time. If you also have a younger child, this is the kind of thing you may want to set up as soon as bubba is down for a nap, to allow yourself as much time as possible.
If you don't have any fingerpaint on hand, you can make some - it's another way to get your child involved. I'll post an easy-peasy recipe shortly. Grab some paper (big rolls of butcher's paper are ideal, find it at IKEA or Riot Arts N' Craft), some paint and a smock/old t-shirt and get to it! Make sure you have somewhere to hang the paper as they finish with each piece, and a bucket of soapy water and a cloth wouldn't go astray either.
This is one of Eden's more recent efforts, a pink giraffe, and I think the giraffe shape is actually discernable!