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?