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Hello my beautiful glitter loving friends, we have something so magical and intriguing to share with you and your little ones today! I have found that children can spend quite an amount of time being captivated with pouring, scooping, mixing and adding little treasures to what ever they can find. Add in the element of the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar and I can assure you your little one will want to mix their little heart out until the sun goes down (or until you have used the whole bottle of vinegar) Let us show you how you can experiment and create your own magic potions!
Do you believe in fairies?
How could you not invite fairies at one point or another into your childs life? A huge part of what I do with my daughter is to nurture and nourish her imagination, wonder and curiosity and fairy tales and magical experiences are one way to fulfil that desire. Children eventually will learn the true facts of the world so in the meantime lets allow them to pretend, imagine and immerse themselves in their own fantasy lands.
You may not have a fairy loving little one, it is just an extra element of fun I added to these potions however, this science based and sensory activity can be done in so many different contexts. YOU use your imagination or follow your childs interests. Could the fizzy mixture be coming out of a volcano, could it be a hatching dinosaur egg or maybe something cooking up in the play kitchen! Go with your own flow and watch the awe and wonder in everyones eyes!
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. ” - J.M Barrie, Peter Pan
What you'll need:
- Water
- Baking Soda - Vinegar (any type) - Natural food colouring
- Bowls / cups / pots, whatever you want to mix the potion in
- Spoons / stirrers / sticks
- Potion "toppings" eg, flowers, leaves, glitter, crystals
Gathering the potion "toppings"
So just secretly I only wanted to plant flowers in our garden solely for the purpose of crafting and creating with Audrina haha. It is amazing having beautiful resources in your very own garden. If you don't have flowers or don't want to pick them, gather fallen petals on the pathway when you go for your next walk, collect gumnuts and leaves and use grass clippings. The opportunities for finding potion treasures are endless.
Let's make magic!
Once you have gathered all of your materials start with about 1/3 of your bowl filled with water and stir in tiny amounts of food colouring. Let them go crazy with the treasures, Audrina poured in pretty crystal gems, flower petals, grass and glitter. She explored all of these items, stirring and mixing and then after a little while we decided to MAKE MAGIC! Add in a sprinkle of baking soda (it doesn't matter how much, I didn't measure as you can keep adding more.) Then pour in the vinegar and watch the potions explode! I poured small amounts of vinegar in little jars (a squeezy bottle would work well) so she could easily and carefully pour them in herself without using crazy amounts of vinegar.
What can they learn?
Remembering that children greatly learn through PLAY and you should allow time for them to experiment on their own without comments or questions, this activity can offer much more and can vary for different ages depending on the questions you may ask. 1. Critical thinking skills Promotes critical thinking skills as they experiment and mix with different colours and substances. Eg, "Once I added blue dye it changed the colour of the water." "Wow I wonder what will happen if I add in more vinegar."
2. Sensory experience The more you add into the potions the higher the sensory experience. Think of all the different textures, colours and smells nature alone provides.
3. Basic science lesson For older children you can get a bit more in depth about the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar and the science behind it.
3. Problem solving and observation skills Encourages them to think about what is going to happen. Eg, what will happen if you mix red and blue together? Then what is going to happen if we pour in more or less vinegar etc. questioning will allow your child to think about what they are doing.
4. Creativity Inventing and imagining scenarios with the optional theme, telling stories, mixing certain colours and intentionally choosing the decorations to add.
Share the magic!
Thank you so much for reading and playing along with us. We would LOVE to see your creations so please send through any pictures or stories and also tag us on instagram at @theserosedays Lots of love! x
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