Glow LAB Explored...with a 3 and 5 year old

We decided to try out the Glow in the Dark Lab kit. Yes, they are only 3 and 5 years old, but with a little help from a device called a "lollipop", I can achieve their complete focus and attention outside a few licks of sugary goodness here and there.

We decided to limit ourselves to just 1 or 2 experiments. So we started with the first one - Glo Water.

Before starting any lab, we read through all the directions. An important step for all mad scientists....

Step 1. Obtain and build all your lab equipment. 

This was a little difficult for the 5 year old, but with a little patience he got it put together. Obtaining all 3 sets of our measuring spoons and cups was not a problem, however.

Step 2. Set up both test tubes. 

This proved to be a little difficult but a little help from mom was accepted.

Step 3. Add the florescent ink.

I did not want my kitchen table or floor to glow so I assisted here.

Step 4. Pour tonic water into second test tube. 

Here is where we had a slight problem...as parents of young children, we do not get to enjoy many drinks...especially gin and tonics, and therefore, do not have any tonic water.  Thanks to a generous neighbor, we were able to secure some with a short walk across the street.

Step 5. Turn on the light from the kit and see what happens...

Well, it was not the excitement that these boys usually show as you can see from their faces, but it was not that exciting for me either. I think we were expecting it to glow a little more.

So we tried the next experiment, but now it was now with 4 boys (2 of our neighbors) and the curious baby. So it was a very fast paced experiment with 4 paint brushes and one bucket of fluorescent ink....

Overall, the lab is to create ink with just a tiny bit of florescent ink, that you can barely see (just 3 drops) and then paint on paper. You should not be able to see the color when it dries and therefore, it would be invisible. Then it should "appear" when the black light is shined on it. Due to the increased number of children, I miss judged and we added a little too much ink, so it did not exactly disappear.

It was fun for them to paint but not that exciting to shine the little light on it.  However, we do live in AZ, and we do have quite a few black lights for scorpion hunting...so next week, we will try it again with our industrial black light flashlight...