Science experiment - Jelly Balls Polymer

My boys know my heart. I love science! Before I had my children, there was one thing I had always looked forward  - having kids to do science projects with.


We decided to do a science project when we had one of our old neighbors over. It was nice to have an extra set of hands to help with keeping the littlest hands out of the experiment.

This was with our Glow Science Project Kit.

A few easy steps to experiment with Polymers.

1. Open the bag of Jelly Balls Polymer (have mom open it)
2. Fill Beaker with the polymer (I had to do one for each kid)
3. Fill each polymer filled beaker with water
4. Add 5 drops of florescent color to the beaker (this is our fun glow lab, but feel free to try with food coloring)
5. Observe



This was our 3 year olds experiment as we have to take turns selecting the experiment that we will try. I just love his content, investigative face here. Knowing he is driving this one.

The boys were very excited to watch how they grow and glow. This can be done in the beaker and the exciting part is when they grow and start to spill over the top and out of the beaker. I saw this coming so we started this in the baking tin so we did not lose any of the polymers to the floor.

Once they were already starting to make a mess, we decided to put them in a better container were we can observe them better.

Then, I let them do exactly what I was looking forward to do as well ---Stick our hands in there and squish them, play with them, and inspect them closely.

Here our 3 year old decided to pick one and just squish it as hard as he could. Even I was excited to see what would happen.

The greatest thing about this experiment is the polymers can be washed, dried (after a few days), and done again.

I saw a blog that tries this with multiple food coloring options. (I'll find the link again and repost soon.)

Each time we do this, we will learn a little more about polymers. This time around, was just observing.

Have you tried a Polymer Experiment with your kids before? 

What other ideas do you have for working with polymers?

The kids are Making Dinner - Tonight is Meatballs and Spagetti

Remember when you were a kid. Squishing gross, slimy things was fun and exciting. Now that I am older, I am not that excited about it. I am especially not that excited about touching raw meat. Or maybe it is the secret desire to be a vegetarian.

Well, for my kids, I try to have them be a part of the cooking process (only when it is for our family)

Skills we talk about are:
1. Cooking is a great way to show you care about someone
2. Good food preparation skills is important -wash hands before, during, during, during, and after...especially in this case
3. Choose healthy alternatives for a healthy body - we cooked with Turkey meat

The boys were very excited to help.

We use a very basic recipe:

1 lb turkey meat
1 egg
3 slices of wheat bread torn in tiny pieces
salt, pepper, and garlic as we like
Parsley if we remember
Cook at 350 degrees until they look crispy and done.

Both kids were very excited to tear the bread to tiny pieces. The 3 year old was even more excited to sneak a bite every now and then.  It is cute to see him eat it as if he is sneaking candy...lol

In this case the 5 year old was very excited to actually squish the meat. The 3 year old was perfectly fine keeping his hands clean.

Just a little help from me to organize them and put them in the oven and we are done.

Cooking can be most difficult with 3 tired, cranky, hungry kids, but when I include them in the process, we all enjoy the time spent together. 

What is your favorite meal to cook with your kids?

Throwback Thursday to "Throw it back on our shoulders"

There is so much pressure to be in so many sports, activities, organizations that it is overwhelming. It is overwhelming to think about even when my oldest is not yet in kindergarten. I see so many families focusing on how many events they can do and how these kids need to excel in one or more sports and how they need to excel in school.  I am so glad these kids are trying their best and challenging themselves, but I want to try something. I want my kids to understand they are part of something much bigger than themselves. I want them to start, even before kindergarten, to comprehend the very small part they play today and how much they can affect the world in a positive way with other activities.

I want to start spending one day to think about something much bigger than ourselves. Our kids are very blessed with the opportuntites they have. But I dont want them to think they they get somewhere because "they deserve it". I want them to earn it. And I want them to appreciate the foundation they have been provided to get them where they want to be. And I dont want them to comprise how they treat people to get there.

Starting this week, I will start "Throwback Thursday" in a new way. This week we will recognize how others may say "it is not my problem", but we will say "throw it on our shoulders. We will help."

This means we will talk about one of the problems in the world (either in our city, in our country or in our world) and find out how we can help. Sometimes it may be very very small or sometimes it may be big, but hopefully, as they grow-up, they will continue this effort so that they can learn how to identify a positive role they can play in any event. I hope my children will realize that the smallest thing they can do is positively impact one person's day but understand that it is an opportunity to positively impact that person's life for their lifetime.  How do you work with your children to help positively impact someone else's life?

We're going on a picnic

There are so many opportunities to let children be themselves and share their own ideas and creativity. One day older brother wanted to go on a picnic, so I just let him prepare. We have gone on picnics before at the park, but this time, I just let him decide what he wanted to bring and how. I was expecting for us just to go on a quick trip and bring a few snacks, but it ended up being a fully prepared picnic.   He thought of his younger brother and brought 2 of everything (as we always do) and some times 3 as he thought of me.

He brought fruit snacks, apples and asked for me to slice them, juice boxes, water bottles, and various other items. He wanted hotdogs, so I cooked up some hotdogs and he wanted them in a bun so I let him put them in a bun and figure out how to put them in a container.

Both boys picked out the small cooler and filled it up carefully and stuck it in the stroller so that we can walk together to the picnic spot. It was really nice to just take a break and see how they view a healthy lunch and how they think of each other when preparing their lunch.

It was also a nice way to make a simple task new a different.

3 steps to the Perfect Mothers Day

Mother's Day is coming up and I am very excited....as I always am. I have in my head the perfect day.  And as I can expect, it will be slightly different from what I envision.  However, there are a few things that I have learned when it comes to these special occasions - prepare, guide, and appreciate.

• Prepare (or hint to the preparer) of things you would like. 
• Guide your little ones with how to show appreciation. 
• Appreciate by showing my thankfulness both in receipt of what I was provided and with the demonstration of appreciation of the mothers and grandmothers in my life.

Step 1. Prepare
For my husband, I remind him that my comments of not needing flowers when I was first dating has long since gone. And now I that we have been married for over 10 years, I appreciate any and all flowers...preferably those that are NOT from the sidewalk.  (The sidewalk flowers are only appreciated when from the kids.)

For the kids, I offer them a few options. This year, I am thinking of considering the following options:

Coloring pages from Activity Village are an excellent way for younger children to
see first hand the nice things they can do to show appreciation when they
are older and given more responsibility. My favorite is this breakfast in bed picture.

This beautiful circular painted flower card from Enchanted Learning
is a great way to upcycle some scrap paper but also allow the kids
to show their painting, cutting and connecting skills
for their Grandma and Grammie.

My favorite thing as a kid was making coupon books for my family.
We always made these from scratch, but  All kids Network has
a really nice option where the kids can print them and
 just hand them out as they see fit for their gift.

Step 2. Guide

 I usually have a terrific husband that has them make me a card while they let me sleep in...which is the best gift I could ever ask for. For the kids, I usually guide them through making cards for their grandmothers. I guide them to make a card with all the components that I would like to see. A pretty picture, a simple message and signed Love, and their name.   Sometimes, we go to the store to buy them flowers, but maybe this year we will try something new:

Jo-Ann is offering to help kids make Mother's Day gifts for their mothers
by hosting a free Make It-Take It event in every store across the country
on Saturday, May 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. 

Step 3. Appreciate

No matter what they give me, I am happy they remember. And I am happy and feel blessed to have kids that show love and appreciation. 

6 Steps to Growing Things with Kids

Spring is here!  Although we try to grow plants at various times of the year, we do not miss spring time as another opportunity to be mini gardeners.

We talk about how important it is to take care of our Earth and our food supply. We talk about how long it takes to grow food and why we should not be wasteful.  We do not always have a lot of luck with continuing to grow things to bear fruit or vegetables for us to eat. (We live in AZ where it gets a lot hotter than I am used to and we just tend to forget to water them.) But we continue to improve on our growing skills and patience.

Here are the basic steps to growing things with kids:

Step 1. Go to the store and let them pick a few different seed packets - vegetables or flowers. They pick the ones that they love to eat or the ones that look the biggest. We talk about where they grow best and how long it will take them to grow.  We look at all the different options and each take turns picking our selection. Each child was able to pick 3 packets, which we will use throughout the year.

A few of the options we selected for this year.

Step 2. Obtain a few containers. Pots, buckets, or mini plastic green houses. We have found that the plastic mini green houses seem to work best for those that may forget to water their seeds everyday or have a hard time not touching them once they are planted, but it requires transferring them a little sooner as well.  We also find that basically any containers can be used. My favorite choices are ecofriendly solutions that we will try next time:

Newspaper pots from Cottage Hill

Toilet paper Rolls from Domestica

Step 3. Clean a place for them to prepare the dirt and let them do all the work.

Step 4.  Either fill the container with enough water to loosen up all the dirt or do this in a separate container and transfer the dirt to the pot later. We found transferring the dirt later was much more fun...but always a little messier.

Step 5. Label the containers with the seeds that you have planted. In our case, the packets of 5 different containers were moved before I had a chance to write on them, so we will try to figure it out as they grow.  Either do this before you start the process with filling with dirt or well after you know what you planted. Another option is to create seed matching cards to determine what the seeds are. An incredibly creative mom and former teacher from The Golden Gleam has a great idea we will try another day.

Seed Matching Card Activity by The Golden Gleam

Step 6. Water and wait. With a lot of sunlight and a whole lot of patience, we have some little sprouts of tomatoes to show.

Boston in prayer

We have not posted in a while. Frankly, because we have not been doing specific projects.  We have been trying to have a little more patience, show a little more love, and be more thankful of what we have.  

The horrific events at the Boston marathon were very emotional for me. As a child, growing up in New England, I have always felt safe. I have always felt blessed to have the feeling of safety as I know many others in our world do not. And I have always thought one day that I would run that Boston marathon.

I do not hide these events from my children. In fact, I dont hide much of the world from them, except for "Reality TV" as it is a poor representation of how people should treat one another, treat the world, and treat themselves.  We talked to our children about what happened at the marathon before they heard from their preschool, with a very basic description.  We prayed for the victims and we were thankful for the heros.  I am still with a heavy heart, as I am with many of the global events. But this was just so close to my home (as New England will always be my home), so I am still trying to comprehend what has happened.

We are forever grateful for all the first responders. We are thankful for all the runners and community who supported the victims, donated blood, supported those stranded with food and shelter. We are thankful for all the medical staff who worked around the clock and, in some cases, straight from the finish line to help the victims.  And we are thankful for the heros such as Carlos Arredondo, who ran toward the victims without thinking twice,  Jeff Bauman who lost both his legs and still identified the bomber and delivers a birthday gift to another victim, Sean Collier, the MIT police officer who died in line of duty, David Henneberry, who noticed the fugitive in his boat, and so many others.

We are deeply saddened by the events, but it is uncomprehendingly, another event that we try to remind ourselves and our children (what Mister Rogers has said) "there are always helpers"..."find the helpers" and to be prepared to BE a helper.