Forgetful Momma

Secular Homeschooling in Canada

water

Beating the Heat with Young Kids

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Last summer was a hot one! And I’m sure this one will be no different, being as we live in the prairies. Instead of wasting wishes, I’m finding ways for beating the heat with our kids. Having fun, staying cool, and enjoying the summer weather… before the cold of winter hits.

beating the heat with young kids

Last year we were living in a rented house, with no air conditioner and a living room without opening windows. Add in 38°C temperatures and we were HOT! The girls were old enough to understand that there really wasn’t much Momma and Dadda could do about the heat, but poor Gauge didn’t understand, he just knew it was hot, and everyone was getting cranky (from a lack of sleep and being over heated).

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Beating the Heat with Young Kids

Get wet!

  • Water guns are a great way to cool down
  • Puddle jumping. Yes, jump in a puddle, young kids love it, the key to this one is getting wet
  • Water balloon fight (sponges take the place of water balloons nicely)
  • Plastic bowls of water for young ones to splash in

Ice

I give ice a category all on its own because it’s different than water.

  • Toys frozen in ice blocks
  • juice or apple sauce ice pops to snack on
  • Ice cubes in the pool – make them extra special by added food coloring

Things to Make

  • Ice cream in a bag
  • Make ice chalk to melted drawing fun
  • Ice pops – let your kids choose some fruit to freeze in molds

Ways We Cool Down:

  • kiddie pool in the back yard
  • sprinkler (even this Momma will run through it)
  • freezies – what summer is complete without them?
  • cool baths before bed
  • trips to the public wadding pool
  • eating cool/cold meals – salad almost everyday with our supper

This year we do have AC but we’re still spending lots of time outside. Hot weather started early in May this year. We have been spending time outside in the shade of trees on blankets for quiet reading time, for drawing, etc.

 How do you keep cool in the summer heat?

Fireworks in a Jar for Kids

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I’ll be honest, this isn’t my day. I have been fighting with the internet and kids all morning. At least the internet finally “listened”, the kids… well, let’s just say I see an earlier than normal lunch and nap in the future. I really hope that this gets done this afternoon after nap. Cross your fingers for me. Water, oil and food color, sounds boring, but it was quite beautiful and quite neat, like fireworks.

I tested this one the other day to see if it was something that they should do individually or as a group. I think individually. Too much going on in one container to make them share or even try to see what is happening in one jar.

Fireworks in a Jar

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You’ll need:

I plan to let them touch a bit of water, then a bit of the oil to feel the difference, before we get to the fun mixing parts. Brave I know, to let them touch the oil let alone add to it, stir and pour it. I just hope we get to do this this afternoon, if not, something fun for me and my girls.

Fireworks

Fill your jar about 3/4 the way full of water.

Put some oil in a small bowl. Add some food color. I used 4 colors, 3 drops of each.

Fireworks

 The color drops don’t break up in the oil. Give it a little stir with a fork. The color won’t separate, you’ll instead see more “balls” or “beads” of color.

Pour your oil into the water. Mine was quite dark at first when I added the oil and color. All the food color separating from the oil into the water.

Fireworks

 You can see some individual colors starting to show.

Fireworks

The longer I watched, trying to get a few good pictures the more you could see happening. Just like fireworks.

Fireworks

Getting ready to clean up, I noticed the bubble at the bottom. It looks like some oil bubbled under the water with some food color drops.

Fireworks

Walking Water Experiment

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On cold days, or days that you are stuck inside, there is nothing better to do than to do some science experiments. Baking too, but then I’d eat more than I should, but then, don’t we all? This walking water science experiment really got my kids attention when I told them what we were going to do. Getting their attention is half the battle most time, so the rest was easy.

Walking water science experiment

Walking Water Science Experiment

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What you need:

  • glass jars
  • food coloring
  • paper towel
  • water

What to do:

Grab three clear glasses or jars, as long as you can see through them and see what the color of the water is through them, you’re good to go. Fill two glasses with colored water – primary colors work great because then you’re adding some extra education in there. We just used a few drops of blue and a few of yellow food color.

Walking water science experiment

I took two pieces of paper towel, folded it twice length wise, we have the select a size paper towel. You don’t need a huge amount to make this work. Loop your folded piece of paper towel over one glass with colored water into the empty jar.

What’s happening:

It will only take a few minutes to see that something is happening. The paper towel will first get wet, and then you will slowly begin to see the color.

Walking water science experiment - color being filtered

In no time at all there will be colored water in the once empty glass. And if you choice the right colors you and your children will see the colors mixing.

We then did it again with shorter pieces of paper towel, just because we can, and I wanted the girls to be able to see the water dripping down. Experiment. Do it as many times as you’d like. Have a chain or circle of glasses going at the same time.

Walking water science experiment

This is so simple, and my girls, 5 years and 3 years, loved watching it. They pulled chairs up to the counters and watched every drop. Great chance to learn how water travels. Mixing colors.

What Happened:

The water appears to defy gravity, but it in reality it moves because of a process called capillary action. The adhesive forces between the water and the paper towel are stronger than the cohesive forces inside the water. As a result, the water travels up and across the paper towel out of one glass and into another.

Walking water Science Experiment

Walking Water Science Experiment

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Walking Water Science Experiment

Materials

  • Water
  • food color

Tools

  • Clear jars
  • paper towel

Instructions

  1. Fill half your jars about half way with water.
  2. Add food color of choice to water.
  3. Piece jar with water next to an empty jar.
  4. Fold pieces of paper towel lengthwise. Place the folded piece of paper towel over two jars with one end in the water and the other end into the empty jar.
  5. Watch and see what happens.

Notes

What's Happened:

The water appears to defy gravity, but it in reality it moves because of a process called capillary action. The adhesive forces between the water and the paper towel are stronger than the cohesive forces inside the water. As a result, the water travels up and across the paper towel out of one glass and into another.

© Ashley Mullen
Project Type: Science Experiment / Category: Experiments
Walking water science experiment