With two school age children who love science and adore craft, thriftymomma is always eager to find fun, inexpensive hands on ways we could fill our spare time.
In the summer we often take our experiments outdoors. Last year we exploded Coke and mentos – a trick that never gets old. We built volcanoes and we made raisins and corn kernels dance. But what do you do when cold temperatures keep you housebound and the kids are climbing the walls yet again?
Here are a few budget friendly experiments to keep your kids learning in the kitchen all year long. The good news is you don’t have to explode pop with mentos to keep them enthralled. Over the winter vacation my kids explored several neat experiments like dancing pepper and the naked egg. Both are very easy to do. And the good news is most of the materials can be found in your cupboard year round.
For the naked egg all you need is a cup, vinegar and an egg (in tact and not hardboiled). Immerse the egg in cup full of vinegar and revisit each morning for three days to see what happens. This is a good way to see how hard an acid like vinegar can be on something like eggshell. Have your kids document what happens each day.
For dancing pepper you need a transparent container again (small Tupperware will do) place black pepper in bottom of container and close the lid. Get a wool scarf or mitts, or sweater (must be wool) and a paperclip. Unbend paperclip so there is a straight end and then rub the wool object on top of the container for about 1-2 minutes. Take paperclip and touch the top of lid. Watch as the static makes the pepper dance.
Visit thriftymommastips for more science experiments or read book reviews of kid’s science experiments.
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