Absorption Color Wheel Revisited

As I mentioned before, we are big on re-doing experiments that we've loved, and this color wheel was a fun one!  (Following the link for instructions)

We put 6 glass jars in a circle and filled every other jar with water.  The girls took turns putting food coloring (red, yellow, blue) in the water.  We then connected every jar with rolled white paper towels.

The girls were THRILLED to watch the paper towels absorb the colors.  They were calling out excitedly which colors were moving the fastest up the paper towels.  You know your kids don't get much screen time when watching water travel up paper towels is so thrilling!

We were all pretty excited when the colors started mixing!

We left the color wheel in the center of the table until the paper towels absorbed all of the water and dried.  The girls are now excitedly making plans for things they can make with their beautiful paper towels!

Bubble Room Revisted

We found the plastic from our bubble room this weekend while cleaning out our shed.  I was excited to blow it up again, but we only left it up for a few minutes.  The plastic smell was just too strong, and we didn't want the kids breathing in any fumes.  They had fun in it for about 5 minutes though!

Eventually, I'll tape around all the edges and fill it with water for the kids to jump on.

Plaster of Paris Beach Art

This is a fun activity that we haven't done in a few years (we basically do the same activities every summer, so if you are looking for new, innovative ideas, go somewhere else)!

The girls made impressions in the sand with the bottom of an old cooking pot.  They then arranged shells, pieces of old glass, and other random objects in the impression. After I took this picture, I explained to E(4) that she would need to place her shells upside down so that she would be able to see the front after she poured her plaster on them.

We mixed up the plaster of paris (2 cups of plaster of paris and one cup of water).

And then poured it over their creations in the sand.

We let the plaster sit for at least 2 hours before popping it out of the sand.

We all love their beach art!!!!!
This is E(4)'s...she said that she loves the glass mouth because of the ridges in the glass.

And this is O(7)'s butterfly and shell art.

Favorite Summertime Activity...Ice Excavation!

Excavating treasures from ice has been one of our favorite summer activities for about 5 years!  The girls and I had fun making their ice treasures yesterday afternoon, and they had a great time excavating this morning!

They were excited to see that their ice hadn't frozen all the way, so they had ice caves which then melted into very large ice bracelets.

They poured salt and water on the ice to melt it.

We couldn't find a hammer, so O(7) brought her softball bat to the beach to beat her ice.
They enjoyed playing with the ice in the lake even more than excavating the treasures, so we are going to make a lot more icebergs just to have in the lake to play with until they melt.  Fun times at Lakeside Homeschool!

Excavating Toys from Ice

Excavating toys from ice is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we do it often!


To prepare this activity, I filled a plastic container with small toys, marbles, and gems and then filled it with water.  I put the container in the freezer and forgot about it for at least a month (that always happens!).


 I finally remembered the container was there (when I was searching the freezer for something to cook), so I dumped the ice block on a pan and gave it to the girls along with salt, water droppers, a hammer, spoons, dull children's knives, and a cup of water.



We all worked together to get the toys out of the ice, and it was tons of fun...as usual!