Joyfully Overloaded

Another super fun experiment of how density works in the water cycle.  This one is so easy the boys have done it many, many times. Fill a cup a little more then half way through with water.  Add oil until you have about a 1/3 of an inch sitting on top of the oil.  Add one drop of food coloring.  It will fall through the oil sitting between the oil and water. Add a pinch of salt and watch the food coloring fall to the bottom of the cup.  the very first time through it fell in a straight line exploding on the bottom...The salt making the food coloring the heaviest causing it to fall through the water instead of simply mixing into the water.  But when you dump a spoonful of salt onto that drop of food coloring i t takes not only the food coloring, but forces the oil down as well.  And then we get to watch the oil float back to the top, kind of like evaporation.  The boys loved it.

Here's a supper fun, easy all day craft.  It breaks the day up well so that even the tiniest ones can enjoy it without getting bored.   You will need: 1 cup cornstarch 2 cups baking soda 1 1/4 cups cold water waxed paper flour rolling pins cookie cutters Combine the cornstarch, baking soda and water in a medium sauce pan.  Cook until mixture is dough-like.   Put dough on a cookie sheet cover with a damp towel until cool enough to handle.  About 15 minutes.  Need the dough until it has that smooth dough texture.  Next sprinkle some flour on the waxed paper and begin rolling the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.  Or just flour the table and do things there, as Laughter did. Once the dough is rolled out cut into all kinds of shapes.  You can either bake shapes at 350 until hardened or place them on a cooling rack and let them harden over night.  If you choose to bake them flip once to make sure both sides harden.  The tota...

These cookies take time but are worth every second. I make them for Christmas, Valentines (as pictured here), and Saint Patrick’s day. Years ago I cominbined two of my favorite cookie recipes to get this one: In each bowl we mixed: 3/4 c soft butter (or soy butter for those with milk allergies) 3/4 c sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 eggs 1/2 tsp almond extract Food coloring if desired 2 tsp baking powder 2 1/2 c flour Once mixed. Chill for a few hours so the dough is easy to work with. Roll out part of each colored dough. Then neatly stack one layer of each on top of the other. Tightly roll into a log. Using floss cut apart cookies. Roll in 1/4-1/2 cup sugar (if you want colored sugar just add a drop of coloring and mix into sugar. One drop goes a long way.) Bake for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

Another fun and simple science experiment to do with littles. Spring is the best time to study the water cycle in my opinion. It’s super easy to do from home too... A few days ago I filled an ice tray with blue water and let it freeze.  Today we took a clear plastic container full of warm water.  On one end we put in a few of the blue cubes of ice and watched the color sink to the bottom.  On the other end we added a few drops of red coloring and watched it stay at the top moving in the direction of the ice (the blue at the bottom was moving in the direction of the red.)  When the two colors met they swirled around turning the water purple....There it was a visual example of cold air clashing with hot air making that deep mysterious rumbling noise.

One of the fun things about homeschooling is that we get to do fun projects for school using things around the house. The boys and I did this one a few years ago when we were learning about the water cycle and density. I thought I’d share it again now that the whole nation has time on there hands. In each cup we had 2 TBS of water and then added the skittles in this way: Cup 1 - 10 purple skittles. Cup 2 - 8 green skittles. Cup 3 - 6 yellow skittles. Cup 4 - 4 orange skittles. Cup 5 - 2 red skittles. This is not an instant gratification project as it takes about 3 hours for the skittles to dissolve, but the anticipation was half the fun. Once they dissolved we put the purple in an empty glass first then with a medicine dropper add each color after that, putting the denser colors in first so each color would sit on the other.