Teaching Tots- Little Volcano's

Last week, the girls & I had another stay home day. I desperately needed it after having family in all weekend, and MC and I never got out of our pj's! G however, decided to play dress up, and she wore a cupcake dress all day and we didn't even brush her hair. 

While MC napped in the morning, G and I cuddled in DJ's chair and watched t.v. while she played a counting game on my iPhone. It was perfect. I'm telling you this, because mom's aren't perfect and we all suffer from our guilty consciences. 

But, that afternoon, I did feel a little guilty that we had accomplished nothing that morning, unless you count spending quality cuddle time together, but I wanted G to have something fun to do. I looked on Pinterest, under my "Teaching the Girls" board, and I found this idea pinned. It was easy, and I had all the ingredients lying around.

 I pulled out four small cups, food coloring and vinegar. Pour some vinegar into each cup, and let your child squeeze in food coloring in each of the cups. Give it a quick stir.

 Pour baking soda in an old dish, pan, whatever. I placed the vinegar filled cups along the side, and gave G a medicine dropper for each cup, and taught her how to pull the top up  to fill the droppers with the vinegar.

 Then, she squeezed them out onto the baking soda.

 Voila! Little volcano's appear and erupt. G thought it was the most fascinating thing ever, and played with it until the tray was completely covered in liquid!

MC laughed and laughed at the bubbles forming, so it's great for your tiny ones to join in and watch!

Sadly, I used all of my baking soda, so make sure you have a super large box of it, so your child will have more to be entertained with! I also didn't scrub my pan, and I put it in the dishwasher, and when I took it out, the pan had discolored. So, make sure you don't care about the dish you are using.

Take this activity a step further, and talk about mixing the colors. Squirt yellow vinegar on top of the blue to make green. Have your child make a prediction about what will happen when she squirts the vinegar onto the baking soda. Will it turn to liquid, make a solid, or bubble up? This activity also works on fine motor skills- holding the medicine dropper with one hand while pulling up the top with the other, and while keeping it far enough in the liquid to actually fill up the dropper. 

This is definitely an activity that we will do together again. I could give this to her while i'm making dinner or when I need to do some laundry. 

Let me know if you try this and what your tot thinks!

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