Science Experiment #3 – Expanding Color Crystals

We are still loving our Mind Blowing Science kit!  It continues to engage and fascinate M.  

Experiment #3 (this is actually #4 on the list that came with the kit.  We skipped #3 on the list because someone was not prepared with all the household liquids required for testing.  We’ll get to that one some other time.)…

First, we had two cups of water.  We added a couple of scoops of baking soda (our base) to one cup and a couple of scoops of citric acid (our acid) to the other.   Then we added some red cabbage powder and watched as one cup turned red (acid) and one turned blue  (base).  So far this was stuff we had already learned, but it was still fun for Mad Scientist M.  

Next, we filled a third cup with a little of the blue water and a little of the red water, and watched it turn purple and foam up.    Apparently there’s no picture of this,  and you’ll have to use your imagination. :)

Then we got out these tiny little polyacrylamide crystals:  This photo is enlarged… in reality these crystals look a lot like sea salt, but are maybe a tiny bit smaller.

We added 2 scoops of crystals to each cup of colored water.  We couldn’t see them any longer and M thought they had disappeared or dissolved.  We set the timer and waited about 30 minutes.  Here you can see they are starting to gel up:  The instructions say to wait 2 hours.   So we kept on waiting….

In the meantime, I gave M a little colored water (green – his choice), baking soda, and some vinegar to play with.    Seriously,  bursts of green fizzing foam are a great way to spend your time if you’re stuck waiting for something, in case you don’t already know this. ;)

2 hours later, here’s what we had: Pretty purple, pink, and blue crystals.   Really, the picture above looks very greenish, but they were actually a pretty blue (grrr… stupid old camera).   AND they were no longer hard, but squishy and soft.  The polyacrylamide crystals are a special plastic that will slowly soak up liquid and become soft.  We are going to let them dry out and then we’ll have pretty, sparkly, tiny little colored crystals. 

M spent quite a long time looking at these and feeling them in his hands.  Mommy and Daddy got in on the fun too.  :) 

For more science with kids, go see Adventures in Mommyhood!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – January 17, 2010

M is 40 months old. 

Yay!  We’re back!  As nice as it was to not write up the TS posts for the past few weeks, it’s also very nice to be back in our groove. 

So, here’s what we’ve been up to…

Math Skills:

I put together a little *math box* (well, in our case a math coffee can) like the one here that my friend Natalie at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns put together for her daughter.  It was full of craft sticks and various bottle lids.  I even threw in some little cards with shapes on them.  He was totally interested in this as it sat on his shelves, yet… he wasn’t sure what to do with it.  So, I showed him how to make shapes with them and suggested a few other things (patterns, letters).   And, I kid you not, the kid said to me, “But can’t I just paint them, Mommy??”   I’m thinking this says a lot about who he is. :) 

We also did some fun number stamping with a grid and a number cube:   I wrote the numbers 1 to 6 randomly on the grid (20 spaces – you can print one here), then using a variety of stamps (the pencil top kind) we rolled the die and then stamped out all of the 2’s or whatever number we got.  We took turns with this to make it more like a game, because M is all about games lately.  He had to help me find the right numbers quite a bit. ;)

We also did some snowflake counting with clothespins and a piece of yarn: I don’t know if you can see clearly in the photo, but we had 5 snowflakes with numerals on them which we clipped in sequence onto the yarn.  Then we had snowflakes with dots on them which we had to match to the correct number and also clip on.  M really, really enjoyed this.  Anything to do with clothespins or paper clips is sure to be a hit around here lately!  The snowflakes were found here.  I colored them with colored pencils to make them pretty. :)

We also practiced counting with some linking monkeys: This was a great introduction to addition!

 

Shapes and Colors:

M did great with this little activity.  I found this pattern block mat here; it has 4 hexagons in different colors.  In order to do this M had to figure out how to make the red hexagon with his trapezoid blocks, the orange one with triangles, and the blue one with diamonds...  a very interesting activity!

 

M also enjoyed his triangle collage page:

 

I bought these fun color paddles with a little leftover Christmas money.  They were from Oriental Trading. M had a lot of fun walking around and looking through them at various things.We also used them in a window to mix colors by placing one in front of another.  There has to be a ton of things we can do with these.  However, I’m really coming up with blanks.  If you have any ideas, share them!!

 

Literacy Skills:

M worked on his letter matching file folder game from here.  This matches upper and lower case letters.

 

We did a letter stamping game similar to the number stamping one mentioned above.  With this one we used a printout from here, and some upper and lower case cards (more on these cards in an upcoming post!) to turn over… we focused on just Tt, Ff, and Aa and stamped them out.

 

M did his Bob the Builder name puzzles with glass beads: He continues to love these!

 

Sorting:

Our theme for this month has been winter and snow (hence the snowflake activities), and we sorted our seasonal clip art onto colored paper.  M did great with this, he’s really got his seasons down. 

Fine Motor Skills:

I have to say, gross and fine motor skill work is what M enjoys most… I have to keep that in mind and incorporate it into other areas, like using fine motor skills to clip numbered snowflakes, etc. 

Another little thing I ordered from Oriental Trading was this awesome Shapes Hammering set.  M loves hammering the little nails into the corkboard and he’s made several pretty neat designs with the shapes.  Most often he pretends he is building a house. :)  He’s played with this every day since I put it out for him.

He laced together two foam mitten shapes:

 

He received this great fire truck puzzle for Christmas and did it 5 times the first day.  It has 46 pieces and has an emergency scene on the other side.  He LOVES this puzzle!

 

I put together a little push pin activity for him, which he also really loved!  We had some little letter cards left from our toothpick poke activity which has become a little boring for him, so he did those first, then I added in some little shapes and drawings for him to outline with the push pins. He really enjoyed this and it was a great workout for those little fingers!  I think I first saw this at The Shafer Family blog.

 

Geography:

We’ve only recently been talking about maps and the world, our country, state, etc.   M is very interested, and enjoyed doing this puzzle (Target Dollar Spot!) of the U.S. Ha – you can see this picture is from some time ago – our Christmas light patterns are in the background! ;)

 

Gross Motor Activities:

M and Daddy and I all ice skated on wax paper in our living room: This is so much fun!  We first did it at our Nature Center weekly class, and it never gets old!

We did our movement cards too; they are always fun.  I’ve found that if M is in a bad mood or whiny or whatever (sigh), if I can think of an activity that has a lot of gross motor movement it helps tremendously.  He turns back into himself.  I’m just not good with all this “boy stuff”, hee hee.  I was a sit quietly and play with my dolls kind of girl.  But, I’m learning!!

 

Music:

M inherited a small keyboard from an older cousin and has been playing it non-stop: It plays a couple of demo tunes by itself and has 5 different rhythms to choose from.  M loves to play these rhythms and make them faster or slower.  It comes close to driving me up a wall sometimes, but I’m glad he’s learning about rhythm somewhere, because he sure isn’t going to get it from me or his dad! ;)

 

Sensory:

We’ve been using some oatmeal (in the cupboard for over a year) in our sensory tub lately.  After seeing oatmeal in a sensory tub at April Flowers, I decided to do it too! M enjoyed playing with his farm animals in it:

And because he loves to play with my seashells I hid them in there one day – 20 of them.  I have him a grid with 20 spaces and he spent a long time looking for all of them.

 

Creative Play:

M also inherited this remote control Scrambler (a Bob the Builder truck) from the same cousin that gave him the “piano”.  Well, he has pretty much played non-stop with Scrambler since we brought it home.  Here he is with all of his puppets and some stuffed animals strung out on the floor… trying to get Scrambler to run over them all. :)  Yep, that’s my sweet boy running over animals with a 4 wheeler. ;)

For more Tot School posts, go here!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Science Experiment #1

Our first experiment in our fun science kit was a basic introduction of acids and bases, called “Dancing Powders”.

We set up our cups and poured water into one of them. We scooped 2 ml of citric acid into the other cup, then added 2 ml of baking soda in and mixed the powders together. M ready to go, but patiently waiting for Mama to take a picture.

Then M used the scoop to add a small amount of water to the powders:

Sure enough, they danced! Everything got all bubbly and we talked about how we heard fizzy sounds and pop! pop!

I realized all over again how amazing simple things are when seen through a child’s eyes.

He continued scooping and pouring the water, and had the time of his life with this simple experiment. At 3, it doesn’t need to get any more complicated than this! :) He was intrigued for well over 45 minutes. We repeated this experiment no less than 6 times!! (“Again! Again!”) We even tasted the citric acid and talked about how it tastes like lemons. Yum for me, not so much for M.

Eventually it turned into this: M dumped everything into the tray (an old metal pan) and stuck both hands in. :) The bubbles formed around his fingers. We tasted this and it tasted salty. We talked about gases and how the bubbles were releasing the same kind of air that we make when we breathe out. M was fascinated with this idea and asked about a million questions. Whew.

The baking soda, citric acid, cups, and scoop were provided in the kit. It was a wonderful experiment and experience!

For more science activities, visit Adventures in Mommydom!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Guidecraft “3-D Feel and Find” – Giveaway!!

We recently received this toy from CSN Stores’ online toys site, and boy, was it a hit with both myself and M! It’s perfect for developing his sense of touch as well as a sense of size and space.
I have to be honest, there are not a lot of pictures to go with this post, which is a little disappointing because I’d love to share with you how much fun we had with this. However, it is something M needed assistance with, and it’s hard to hold a bag with a 3 year old’s crazy hand in it, and take a picture at the same time. :)
First of all, I love the look of the toy’s pieces – all the shapes are made from wood and painted in bright colors. There are 20 shapes in all and 20 wooden tiles to match them to. Everything seems to be very well constructed! The wooden tiles have the shapes cut into them and the recessed area (and backing for the wood) is textured hardboard. A cloth drawstring bag is included for playing “Feel and Find”.
However, I just knew at first look that there would be many great possibilities for playing with this toy.
First we set the tiles out in rows and M matched the shapes to them: As you can see there are several animal shapes and several geometric shapes; there are also two people shapes (one is a bit more “robust” than the other) and two tree shapes (a narrow one and a wide one).
We talked about each shape and identified the animals and other shapes by name.
Then we began playing with the wooden shapes in the drawstring bag and the tiles in a stack. He picked a tile from the top, then reached into the bag to see if he could *feel* the correct shape. M was very, very excited about playing the game and eager to get everything perfect. However, with 20 fairly unfamiliar shapes in the bag, it was a pretty challenging game for him (which is a good thing, since it means we will get a lot of use out of this as his skills develop!). So, remembering to set him up for success, I decided to change things up a bit before any discouragement or frustration set in, by sorting the pieces into three groups of shapes and tiles.
We grouped all the animals together, the two people and two trees were grouped together, and the third group was all of the geometric shapes.
Then, beginning with the small group of trees and people, we took time to look at each one and note the different characteristics. Then we stacked the tiles, put the 4 shapes into the bag and proceeded to play “Feel and Find”. :) M did a fabulous job! And his confidence soared! We continued the same way with the other two groups and handed out high fives each time he found the right shape. We were laughing, M was excited, and we were having a great time. We spent about 45 minutes total with this our first time, and it felt like time flew by. We’ve played several fun games since then!
Once he is familiar with the toy and knows all the shapes, I want to play a game with him using just the tiles. Since they are textured, I’d like to have him close his eyes while I set a tile in front of him. Then, using just his fingers (eyes still closed or possibly blindfolded), I’ll have him feel the textured area and see if he can guess which shape it is. This is only one of my ideas for extension activities with this toy. :) It’s such a great way to get a good sensory workout.
And, the wooden shapes all stand up on their own, and would be fun for creative play time too – I’m thinking of building block play or adding them to sensory tub playtime. As his fine motor skills develop they’d also be great to use for tracing around and then drawing in details. (You knew I’d find something artsy to use them for, didn’t you?)
Oh my goodness, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of this toy in our Tot School posts! ;)
Ok, thanks for reading such a long post… but here’s what you are really waiting for… the GIVEAWAY portion. ;) CSN Stores is graciously giving away an award-winning Guidecraft “Feel and Find” toy to one of my readers!
This giveaway contest will begin now and end at midnight (CST) on Thursday, and is open only to US and Canadian readers. On New Year’s Day I’ll announce the winner! Be sure to check back here to see if it’s you! If I don’t hear from the winner within 24 hours of posting, I’ll pick someone else.
Rules for entries:
1. Mandatory first entry – go to CSN Stores’ online toys site and pick your favorite game, puzzle, or creative play toy, then come back here and let me know what it is in a comment.
2. For an extra entry, write a post on your blog about this giveaway and link to this post as well as to the online toys site (and leave another comment).
3. For another extra entry, if you are a follower or subscriber to Tired, Need Sleep, let me know (and leave another comment!). You can subscribe or follow now, but please only if you really like me, hee hee. I don’t want to buy any friends with a giveaway. :)
Good luck, everyone!!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Dec. 27, 2009

M is 40 months old

Tot School was pretty much non-existent this past week, but we managed to get a few things in…
Snowflake matching:
I printed the snowflakes from here, cut them into cards and M tried matching them up in our pocket chart. He did pretty well with this considering some of them were pretty tricky.
No picture for this one, but I printed some snowman grid gameboards from here, and we took turns rolling a die, then putting that number of cotton balls on our game cards. We went top to bottom and left to right. Whoever filled their card first won.
M’s cousin S came over for the day on Tuesday and we made homemade playdough. I didn’t add any coloring (it was a little off-white due to the brownish vanilla I put in it), but we did add silver glitter and vanilla extract. Yum! And pretty! I set out a tray of goodies: There’s buttons, googley eyes, ribbons, pipecleaners, and various lids here.
And the kids had a great time making snowmen:
Aren’t they adorable? And if you’re wondering which child used the pipecleaners for super-long noses… well, that would be my child, hee hee. ;)
We also used up our green playdough that was getting a little old. We used cookie cutters, glass pebbles, colored pasta, buttons, and glitter glue to decorate them. M gave these to grandparents and godparents for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we had about 8 inches of snow dumped on us. I grabbed a couple of buckets and M played (well over an hour) with real snow and his little cars on the kitchen floor.I’ve noticed that if I occupy him with this kind of thing, he is quite happy to play on his own as long as I’m sitting at the table, cooking, or just hanging out in the kitchen. We explored how snow melted into water and then we set it back outside. Saturday morning he remembered it and we brought it in and he played with the ice!
I hope you are all having a Merry Christmas (remember, Christmas has just begun - it lasts for 12 days!!!). :)
For more tot school, go here!

Tot School, Christmas-style – Dec. 20, 2009

**M is 39 Months Old**

This post will be some of the Christmas-themed activities we’ve done in the past couple of weeks. We’ve had a productive, relaxed, insightful, and just plain fun time on my “blog-break” (more about that in future posts).

First, this is how I’ve been finding M first thing many mornings:(sorry for the blurry photo… these old hands of mine aren’t very steady before my coffee, heh) – he’s been sitting in front of the tree, all lit up in the dark, playing with toys so sweetly and quietly. I think he is really soaking up the magic of Christmas and those Christmas lights – remember how special they were when we were children? :) I’m loving this stage with him.

Music:
We have been singing and making music quite often now that his instruments and song book are out and accessible all the time: (Don’t let the blank look on his face fool you, he really does LOVE doing this!)

Fine Motor Skills:
This was a great post from Allie at No Time for Flashcards. However, I really didn’t feel like making one on my own so I gave M some yarn (instead of wire) and some felt I had cut into squares and cut a slit into the middle of – M strung the felt pieces onto the yarn, then we formed it into a wreath and hung it on the tree:
I made these fun rubbing plates using cardboard from a cereal box:I used a cookie cutter to trace the tree, star, and angel and free-hand drew the snowflake. Then I went over the drawings with hot glue. M used them with newsprint and crayons: This was a little tough for him because the paper slid around quite a bit. Here are the best samples of what he did: I plan to make more of these for other holidays – they were fun and really held his interest. He must’ve done dozens of these in the past two weeks.

Sensory:
I filled a large pan with “pretend snow” (shaving cream) one day and M played in it with his little cars for TWO HOURS. I am not kidding. TWO HOURS. There was a mess to clean up, which took me a good 15 minutes. But it was worth it for TWO HOURS of him being involved and interested in something. :)He asked for it again another day and played with it for 20 minutes, sigh. (ugh, look at that kitchen floor. So old and ugly. If anyone wants to give me a Christmas present, a new kitchen floor would be perfect. :) )

Math Skills:
M has really taken off with his understanding of patterns recently. He is really getting it. We did our pattern Christmas lights again, this time in an ABCABC pattern. At first he insisted that it could only be red, green, red, green, etc. Then I talked to him about how we sometimes play games with Daddy and we each take a turn, even though there are three of us. We ended up naming the green lights M, the red lights Daddy, and the blue lights Mommy, then strung them up – he really got it! At the end we were calling them by their colors again and he understood perfectly. We even did some AABB patterning and he picked up on that too! Yay!!

We did a quick counting game with some cardstock Christmas trees and pom poms. I drew little spots for 30 pom poms to go on each tree, then we simply took turn rolling the number cube and putting that many pom pom “ornaments” on our trees to decorate them. The first one to have all the spaces filled won.
I found some Christmas pattern mats here, and printed them in black and white. M was really into this, so I went back and printed a lot of the non-Christmas ones from the same site. The fact that they were black and white instead of colored like the ones we normally use provided just the right amount of challenge to M to make it interesting. He enjoyed “coloring” them with the pattern blocks.

Literacy:
M practiced spelling his name with this ornament stringing activity I made for him. You can read more about that here.
Religion:
We’ve really been enjoying our Jesse Tree stories every evening. I switched to a green felt Christmas tree to see if M would actually hang the ornaments on the tree. He has put some on the tree, but some are still in the “air” too. Such a silly boy sometimes. :) He has really learned a lot from this project, and is always so excited when it is Jesse Tree time!

Nature Center Time:
We are enjoying our Nature Center classes so much, and they just keep getting better and better. I’ve decided to start adding these into our Tot School posts so we’ll be able to remember how much fun we’ve had!

A couple of weeks ago we talked about what animals do when it snows. Did you know weasels turn white (except for the tips of their tails, which turn black) in winter? Or that frogs dig down deep into the mud and turn into frog ice cubes? :) The kids had a snowball fight inside with cotton balls, made candy cane animals,

(It’s a reindeer!)

and went ice-skating on wax paper:M had a ball. We are out of wax paper or we’d be doing this every day. I even tried it and it was fun for me too!

The next week “Nature Santa” visited and read a story about Christmas trees in the forest to the kids:
His glasses were fogged up here because he had just come in from a zero degree day.

M got to make bird feeders with bagels and seeds, and one with fruit loops on a pipecleaner: These are hanging in our yard waiting for the hungry animals to discover them.

We even got to eat a pancake breakfast with Santa! M had the time of his life until….
it came time to actually meet Santa and talk to him: He was suddenly very shy and completely forgot to say all the things he had planned on saying. :) It’s ok though because Mommy has Santa’s phone number and will be giving him a call to let him know what M would like. ;)

For more Tot School posts go here.

Have a beautiful Christmas with your families! :)