Experiment Girl - Exploding Baking Soda

While it's amazing that this summer is getting close to over, June with all of its camps and lessons took a lot out of us.  I feel like summer didn't really start until July arrived with very little scheduled and lots of free time on our hands.  I didn't realize how hard those days and days with no activities would be to fill.  So I turned to Pinterest to try and find ideas of how to keep Charlotte occupied for a short period of time in the mornings.  And thus began our experiments.

We started with a science experiment, this one, and are going between crafts and science depending on the day and both of our moods.  Charlotte is loving our ex-peer-ments as she calls them and can't wait for James to go to sleep for his morning nap so that we can do one!  So, without further ado, here's our first experiment - Exploding Baking Soda!

EXPLODING BAKING SODA

Immediacy of results: Immediate

Prepwork needed: None other than getting materials
Time required: 15+ minutes

Materials Needed:

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Food Color

Eye dropper/Nasal Aspirator -- something that you can drip vinegar with

Pan

Step 1. Pour baking soda into the pan.  Ours was two almost full small boxes into a square 8x8 pan.

Step 2. Divide vinegar (apple cider or regular works) into bowls and color with food color to achieve whatever colors you want to use.

Step 3. Fill dropper with tinted vinegar and start dousing the baking soda!

I explained to Charlotte that this was a chemical reaction but we didn't get real in depth with the science since she's only three.  Next time we try this we'll probably work in a little more information and continue adding more as she gets older.  She was amazed to watch the bubbles form and it was not messy at all for us since she didn't want to drop the vinegar.  If your child is open to doing the vinegar herself then it might get a little messy.

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Over the next week or two or more I'm going to intersperse the blog with posts about our experiments.  Maybe you don't have the same issue comparing yourself to others that I do but I do want to make a disclaimer about these posts.  In no way do I want to make anyone feel bad with them.  I have a hard time reading posts like this on other people's blogs and not feeling a little judged that I'm not doing more to teach my kids at home (my issue, not anyone else's).  It's always kind of overwhelmed me to come up with things to do to keep the kids entertained and learn at the same time.  But with the help of Pinterest and a little extra time in July I finally feel like I'm starting to get in a groove and I'm loving how I feel helping Charlotte do this and how she feels learning and doing it.  Most of the things that I'm going to show don't take much time but they do take more effort than I have on a lot of days.  I just want to share, mostly to record for my memories, but also for any Mom's like me out there who want a list of easy activities that they can do with their kids with things that they (probably) have lying around the house.