Homemade Slime!

I know we've made slime before. In fact, you can find the post here,  but this time around I thought it would be cool to make glitter slime! Too bad it didn't turn out the way I wanted. I believe I added too much Borax and what we ended up making was more like the consistency of a bouncy ball rather than slime. Although it wasn't truly slime the kids still enjoyed playing with it. 

Slime Take 1

Slime Take 2

Luckily I had another bottle of Elmer's glue laying around so I made another batch of slime...this time I was careful and added the Borax mixture a little bit at a time so that I could get the consistency right. 

The recipe I used does contain Borax so I was right by the kids' side when playing reminding them to keep it away from their mouths. Next time I am going to try a recipe that is Borax free. I found a recipe with Metamucil so I may give that a try. Below is the recipe that I used.

Recipe:

1 bottle of Elmer's Glue

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 tsp Borax

food coloring if you want

Directions:

1. Dissolve the Borax in the warm water (warm water helps it to dissolve)

2. Empty the bottle of glue into a bowl. Add a drop of color and mix in. 

3. Add the Borax mixture a little at a time and mix well. Mixing it with your hands is best! 

Of course the first thing Camden did was make a run for his cars. Any time we make any kind of substance he loves to run his cars through it and make tracks. The nice thing is that the cars don't stick it the slime. 

Alex liked stretching it

I knew I saved some baby jars for some reason! Great storage for slime! 

In the future I do want to try to make a Borax free version and when I do I'll post it so stay tuned! 

Oh one more thing....I really should have taken a picture this morning. I came downstairs and found slime stuck on the wall! Luckily because it was a thin layer and the glue had dried it peeled right off. A little magic eraser got the rest off. This morning Camden also got some stuck on his shirt. That was a little harder to remove...hoping the rest comes off in the washer! 

Super Science Sunday

Today (actually the past two days) we've been stuck inside because it has been non-stop raining around here. Right now our county is under a Flood Advisory and Winter Weather Advisory on the second to last day of March. This isn't the start of Spring that I imagined.

This weekend we've played with all of the toys, watched movies cuddled up on the couch, and today we decided to do some science experiments per Alex's request.

Alex has always been a curious kid. Recently though she's been asking a ton of questions about life in general, how things work, etc. In fact, tonight our dinner conversation was about how cars actually work and how electricity works. Our recent conversations have been about things like Chemistry, chemical reactions, and the elements of the Periodic Table.  I was having flashbacks to 7th grade Chemistry trying to explain to my 5 year old about molecules and chemical reactions.

I told her that when she's older she can take Chemistry and do fun science experiments. She said "I can't WAIT to take Chemistry!!!!!" (I can't wait either when she's asking me for help with her homework....eeek!)

Anyways, the point is, she loves learning about everything and although they are simple we did a few science experiments today that both kids loved.

The Baking Soda Volcano
Ingredients:
baking soda
vinegar
food coloring
dish detergent
empty plastic bottle
paper towels
cookie sheet
funnel

Directions:
Place the plastic bottle on a cookie sheet (makes for easier cleanup).
Add baking soda to bottle using a funnel.
In a separate container mix some vinegar, a drop of  red food color, and a few drops of dish detergent
Add the vinegar mixture to the bottle and remove the funnel quickly!!

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/vinegarvolcano.html

Elephant Toothpaste

Ingredients:
4 oz. hydrogen peroxide (most recipes call for 6% - I used 3%)
2 oz. dish detergent
food coloring
plastic bottle
one packet of yeast
A cup of warm water to proof the yeast
cookie sheet/plastic container to hold the bottle

Directions:
Add the yeast to a cup of warm water and stir to let it proof. Let it sit for a little bit
In the plastic bottle mix the hydrogen peroxide, the dish detergent, and a drop of food color.
Add the yeast and watch it rise!

Color Changing Milk Experiment

This was the first time we did this experiment. I didn't do a video but should have because the initial reaction was really funny. (Mine that is.....Chris continued to mock my oohs and ahhs for a good while after I did this experiment!!) I wasn't able to do a video the first time I did the experiment with the kids because I was trying to give directions to two kids and then try to stop Camden from coloring his whole body blue. So Alex and I re-created the experiment and I was able to take a video.

Ingredients:

a dish with a lip on on (I used a small plate)

milk (I used my 2 percent - we did it several times....our organic milk is way to expensive to use!!)

two different colors of food coloring

Q-tips

dish detergent

Directions:

Pour the milk onto a plate/dish

In the center of the milk squirt 3-4 drops of two different food colors

Stick a Q-tip in the middle but don't mix a lot (What happens?? Not much really - the colors may mix a tad)

Next, dip another Q-tip in dish detergent and stick it in the middle and watch what happens. Pretty Cool! 

Oobleck

Another science experiment Alexandra and I did today was make Oobleck.  I used to always make Oobleck with my students after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Each March for Read Across America Day we would honor Dr. Seuss by reading his books and as an extension to reading we made one of his books come to life by making Oobleck.

The mixture is so easy to make. Simply mix 2 cups of corn starch with 1 cup of water (with a few drops of food coloring) and stir the mixture together. It may seem tough to stir but keep at it. The neat thing about Oobleck is that it acts like both a solid and a liquid. 

Again, we had so much fun playing with this. All three of us played with it for a good half hour tonight after Chris got home from work and we would have played longer but it was Alexandra's bedtime. It was definitely a nice family activity to do together! 

Making Flubber

This afternoon after Alexandra's quiet time she wanted to do some activities together so I tried to find something that we could do spontaneously since I didn't really plan anything. So I was looking around Pinterest and saw a recipe for Flubber and thought it would be fun to make.

I did the mixing of the ingredients because there is a small amount of Borax in it. I did find the recipes on preschool websites, a preschool You Tube Channel and homeschooling sites so I figured it would be safe to make.  I only had Alex play with it for a short while and then wash her hands really well with my help when we were done just to be on the safe side. She is old enough to know and understand my directions to not eat it or put it near her face. I was still very cautious when having her use it. I thought it would be a neat sensory and science experiment for her. It was fun to play with! She was amazed by  how it stretched, went back to shape, bounced, and just would take the shape of whatever container it was in.

Here is the recipe I followed to make the Flubber (as found on Frugal Fun Challenge) although I cut the recipe in half and it still made a lot for just the two of us. The recipe below is going by my halved measurements.

Flubber

Mixture 1:
3/4 cups wamr water
1 cup Elmer's Glue (2 bottles)
food coloring

Mixture 2:
1 1/2 tsp. Borax
1/2 cup warm water

Directions:
Stir mixture 1 together in a bowl. Add food coloring to the mixture of glue and water after it is combined.
Stir mixture 2 in another bowl (I used a liquid measuring cup)
After mixing both mixtures well, pour mixture 1 into mixture 2, or vice versa.

You may think that it's going to be too runny but after stirring for a few minutes the two mixtures will come together and form a blob of Flubber! It's actually a chemical reaction that occurs that forms the Flubber.

I did let Alexandra squirt the glue into the measuring cup

 I also let her squirt the food coloring into the glue mixture

 Mixture 1: pink on left

Mixture 2: cloudy mixture on right

 When you mix the two together you get Flubber! 

Time to Play!!!!

Believe me that this Flubber was not just fun for Alexandra - I had fun with too...and so did my husband when he came home from work. In fact, we all sat down and played with the Flubber and Oobleck we made today (and I made Alex wear rubber gloves - am I totally paranoid or what??) After doing these two experiments and seeing the excitement in Alexandra's eyes I think I want to do some more science activities with her!

It's Weather Week at Our House!

So this past week in PA we've has quite a weather week! Of course we've had our sunny days as is normal in August but we also had some weather that is not normal for our area - an earthquake aftershock, a hurricane, and a tornado warning!

On Tuesday I was feeding Little Monkey and Little Bug was joining us (as she is my shadow lately) and so all of the sudden our whole house shook! The chair I was sitting in, the windows, the walls, the closet, everything! At the time I was doing some laundry and I thought at first that it was just my washing machine getting off of the track because I was doing a bunch of towels. When the house shook it felt weird. Little bug said "Mommy what's that??? and hid under her blanket" My response: It's just the washer. Although I was wondering why on earth our whole house shook and thought......hmmm that's not right! It wasn't until I was done feeding him when I got a text from my sister asking about the earthquake. The WHAT?????? Oh..........so that's what it was. We just felt the earthquake that happened in Virginia. So that was a first (for all of us!)

Then on Saturday Hurricane Irene was making her way towards PA. We are about an hour and a half from all of the NJ, MD, and DE beaches so we were definitely going to have the high winds and heavy rain. We were in the 30-50 MPH wind gust range and got 5-10 inches of rain. Not sure of the exact amount but it was a lot! So in the midst of the hurricane at about 10:45 PM Saturday we were also under a tornado warning - meaning one had spotted. The emergency alert system came on saying it would be at neighboring areas at 11:00 PM. Scary. So we headed down to the basement and , well, we just ended up spending the night down there to ride out the storm. After the tornado warning we continued to have a watch until 5 am.

On Sunday I made a homemade anemometer, which measures the wind speed, and it worked! We still had major gusts of wind so it was really moving.

So needless to say I decided that talking about the weather with Little Bug would be a perfect fit for this week! Stay tuned for pictures of the activities that we are doing this week.

We got the instructions to make the anemometer from Weather Wiz Kids