What a wonderful summer it has been! Amid all the pool time, playgrounds, camping trips, play dates with friends, and visits from family we made time for a few activities. Indoors, we did some painting, playdough and a robot tinker tray (see a past picture of that here). But outside we had a lot of messy fun! Our kids are currently 2, 7 and 9... so I had to come up with a few activities to entertain multiple ages. Keep scrolling to have a look at what we did!
Colorful Explosions
This is a classic volcano experiment, with a colorful twist! I poured some liquid watercolors in the bottom of each cup, and covered them up with a spoonful of baking soda and a drop of dish soap. Then I supplied the kids with cups of vinegar. First I had them use pipettes, to allow the fun to last longer, but it wasn't producing much of a reaction.
So then I allowed the big kids to pick up the measuring cups and pour the vinegar in.
I'd say that worked! Look at all the pretty colors! And thanks to a few drops of dish soap, it was really bubbly too!
After the initial reaction, they went back to using their pipettes.
I had a supersized jug of vinegar on hand. For about $3, it's worth having for experiments like this! So we refilled the cups often, and the reactions just kept coming and coming!
Even Sweet E got in on the fun (with a plastic measuring cup though, instead of glass).
Eventually Honey Pot started reversing the process, and squeezed vinegar from the baking soda cups back into her measuring cup.
The play went on and on. A little baking soda really goes a long way!
Little M&M and Sweet E continued to pour vinegar into it...
and the bubbly colors kept spilling out!
Meanwhile Honey Pot kept taking more for her measuring cup...
until it looked like this!
Once we ran out of vinegar, and Sweet E lost interest, the big kids continued making potions. I'd say it was a successful activity for all ages!
Ice Play
I added some liquid watercolors to water, and poured it into my snowflake ice cube trays. They sure look pretty when they are frozen! Had I planned further ahead, I would have made several trays full!
We added a bit of water to the bucket, and explored their texture.
Then they divided the ice cubes among themselves and placed them into cups.
Sweet E poured hers back into the water to watch them melt, while the big kids played around in the yard doing who knows what lol.
20 minutes later, when Honey Pot's and Sweet E's ice cubes had melted, guess who still had some safe, and hardly melted, in his cup! Little M&M!
Another day I made some colorful, regular ice cubes, and Sweet E enjoyed playing with them in the water table. But they melted quickly!
Honey Pot set up her own activity later on, using a regular ice cube tray and a few small toys. Then she and Little M&M took them outside to play!
Bubble Foam
Colorful bubbles are a favorite around here! One day this summer we made bubble foam, by mixing some dish soap, water, and liquid watercolors together with a mixer! I brought it outside (because as you can imagine, this gets messy) and let the kids play how they wished.
They loved smooshing their hands through it!
They scooped some from one bucket into the other to watch the colors mix.
Then they decided to grab some cups and a toy whisk to keep the play going. This is where it got messy! And a lot of the bubbles started to disappear.
So we brought the buckets around the the backyard, and poured what remained into the water table. After turning the hose on, it bubbled right back up!
Messy, happy kids!
Later in the summer, we did a similar activity, but much easier than using a mixer and watercolors. I just poured a little bit of dish soap into the empty water table, and turned the hose on a powerful setting. Instant bubbles. And just as fun!
Chalk Obstacle Course
This is something we've done several times, so I didn't think to take careful pictures. But it is always so much fun! Alone, Sweet E probably wouldn't follow the directions very well. She does love to copy her big brother and sister though! So she was jumping, running and spinning right along with them. Here are the different sections I created.
RUN
JUMP and then FOLLOW the swirly line.
STOMP and then SKIP.
SPIN 5 times, then try to BALANCE along the line.
LEAP onto each line.
And finally, RUN to the finish line and SHOUT HOORAY!
It was a lazy, rainy morning, and the big kids were still in their pajamas, but here they are trying it out!
They got really silly with it. Doing it in slow motion, sometimes in fast forward lol.
And Sweet E was their little Mini Me!
After they had gone through the obstacle course several times, they decided to add their own things to the end of it! "Take baby steps" for example. "Don't step on the cracks" was another.
Water Beads
This was our last endeavor of the summer. It is always a hit with kids and grownups alike! This time, I poured a huge amount of water beads right into the water table, and filled it with some water from the hose. Although they were so small, Sweet E played with them right away!
We watched them grow throughout the day, and added more water now and then. By mid-afternoon they were really big!
Sweet E started adding some cups for scooping.
And other toys!
This is so fun!
She practiced some pouring skills.
And filled up the bucket.
A favorite thing to do is take a few clear water beads and place them in a bucket with water. They look like they disappear!
Surprise, there they are!
We kept these out for a few days, rinsing them off now and then to keep them clean. I don't have pictures, but the big kids were playing with this for a long time too. As did some adult company we had lol. Addicting, sensory fun!
We had a super fun summer. Now that Honey Pot and Little M&M have returned to school, Sweet E and I are looking forward to resuming weekly themes! Stay tuned!
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