making pictures with rocks

I don't know about your kids, but mine love to collect things, especially rocks.  One thing that is fun is having them collect rocks and have them organize them by color, then have them arrange them in a picture or collage.  This is a little flower put together by dark gray and yellowish rocks. 

making suds

This is a fun outdoor activity for kids and a science experiment all in one.

Materials needed:
Tall plastic cup or any other tall container
liquid dish detergent
1/2  cup warm water
1 tsp. Baking soda
Citric acid
Measuring cups

1. Mix three big squirts of the liquid dish detergent, 1/2 cup warm water, and one teaspoon of baking soda in the plastic container.  
2.  Sprinkle in couple pinches of the citric acid into the solution.  
3.  Watch the suds form.

note:  I bought my citric acid from amazon.com.  It's a rather large bag of it, but I do use it when I am making my own dishwasher detergent.

To integrate this into a science experiment discuss with the children what a base and an acid is.  The suds occur because the baking soda is a base and when you add the acid (citric acid), it produces carbonic acid.  The carbonic acid breaks down the water and carbon dioxide as a gas and the gas launches the bubbles.  Can you think of other household acid and bases?

nail polish that changes in the sun

Since my daughter had so much fun with the beads that changed color in the sun, I thought I would try out nail polish that changes color in the sun.  This nail polish starts out pink and changes to purple as soon as the sun hits it.

Purple is my daughter's favorite color!  She loved this and has bragged to her friends all about how her nails change color.

making smores without the fire

This is a really cool summer idea and fun for the kids!

Materials Needed:

Paper

Aluminum Foil

Cup

Tape

Rocks

Graham crackers

Marshmallows

Chocolate

1.  Put about three to four rocks in a cup.  This keeps the cup from falling over in the sun.
2.  Place a piece of paper on top of a piece of aluminum foil.  The aluminum foil should be a little bigger than the piece of paper so you can fold over the sides.
3.  Wrap the paper/aluminum foil with the aluminum foil facing inward into a cone and tape the bottom so the cone stays in place.
4.  Place the graham cracker on the bottom, then the marshmallow, and the chocolate on top into the cone.
5.  Set in the sun, with the aluminum foil facing the sun.
6.  Watch the chocolate melt. 
7.  Place another graham cracker on top of the melted chocolate and enjoy!

Rock Buddies

As I have mentioned in a previous post, my daughter loves collecting rocks.   The last time we were out we decided to look for some smooth rocks.  When we got home we painted them, let them dry, then painted a face.  Then we glued on some cotton balls for hair.  To me the cotton balls make these guys look like old men, so I suppose you could paint the hair or use felt.  I would also suggest making the bug look like a rock.  My daughter loves playing with anything small, so now these little rock buddies are in the doll house with the pom pom spiders having a party.  :)

Collecting

I mentioned in a previous post that my daughter is now collecting rocks.  If you live by a beach, like we used to, you or your child can collect shells.  This is one shell we found while out with my niece.  After collecting a bunch you can again sort them by size or color, paint them, use them as inspiration for a drawing, etc.  The ideas are endless.  My daughter likes to paint things, so she painted her rocks different colors.  :)

Painted Rocks

I love pointing out beautiful things in the environment to my daughter.  One of the beautiful things I pointed out recently was how rocks really show their colors when they are wet.  So one morning we went out to the back porch and started looking at rocks and getting them wet.  To go a little further I had my daughter sort the rocks based on color.  Sorting by color, size, texture is a concept that should be worked on prior to kindergarten.  This is a fun, easy, cheap educational activity to do with any young child.   My daughter is now a avid rock collector.