Summer Fun with Kids: Learning is FUN!

Today I'm excited to end Summer Fun With Kids with my awesome new Blog buddy CJ from Give oh Giveaway. She's been such a great help to me with redoing my blog and learning the ins and outs of giveaways. CJ and I met in a facebook group for bloggers and hit it off pretty fast! We found out we have a lot in common and I'm so happy she is here to do the final Summer Fun with Kids post!




Usually my blog consists of reviews and giveaways, but occasionally, I post something that I just feel like I have to share! Like, how to clean up your Facebook news feed, REAL mystery shopping opportunities, and now today's post of Summer fun with Kids!


My blog buddy, Teresa, over at Crafting in my Closet spent the month of July doing guest posts on her blog about fun things to do with kiddos during the summer months and Give oh Giveaway was offered a spot to post.

Before I dive in, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite people in the whole world! My Mom, Leta! You have already met my Dad HERE. What does she have to do with Summer Fun with Kids? 

Well she is the children's librarian at her local library and has had not just the summer reading program going for the kids, adults, and teens, but also a program for babies,  AND she does fun activities/crafts with them all the time. She is the definition of fun with kids....seriously. Ok so let me show you what she did for summer fun this week at her library. We attended the Super Science Summer Day that she organized and had a blast! You could do all of these things at home! 


Who says you can't have fun in summer WHILE learning? (Not my Mom!)

*The first station we went to was a blowing up balloon station....doesn't sound too scientific... until you see it! The girls were each given a empty water bottle. The adult filled it 1/3 way full of white vinegar. Then inside a balloon they used a funnel to put in some baking soda. They carefully attached it to the lip of the water bottle and then were asked to make a hypothesis of what would happen. Then on the count of 3 they lifted up their balloon (to empty the baking soda into the bottle and the balloon started blowing up itself! They made it a race and the girls were cheering their balloons on. It was so fun! The volunteer described why and how it works. For more details, instructions, and a video you can go to HERE.

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*The next thing we did was take a half of a bar of Ivory Soap and put it in the microwave for 1 minute. The kids were asked what they thought would happen. I guessed it would melt....but I was wrong....This was SO SO SO COOL! You can kind of see it in the microwave there....it grew! Oh it was so fun to watch it grow. Then once it cooled off (30 seconds) it was soap flakes! It was so fun to play with and it smelled awesome! 

*The third station we visited was super fun too! We were making elephant toothpaste. This experiment included ammonia, dish soap hydrogen peroxide, and yeast. Definitely required adult supervision! I missed the exact measurements but you can check out the details HERE and watch a video. Once you add the yeast to the other ingredients it turns into an awesome foam....this lovely volunteer tinted this batch green! It was just cool to watch. The kids were hands on and this awesome lady even explained the reaction, I don't remember it, but it was cool to see!

 

I was in love with the 4th station! My Mom had taken an old window, filled it with metal shavings, and then taped on a heavy duty something on the back ( I should have looked!) On the ends of pencils she glued a magnet. So when you went over the glass the magnet picked up the little pieces. It was so fun to play with. We would have stayed at that station for longer if there wouldn't have been 130 other people there waiting for their turn! I plan on doing this in a picture frame and keeping them in the van for long trips or taking them to the doctors office with me when we are stuck waiting for a bit. 

It is hard to tell from this picture but she filled a vase half full with water. She put paperclips in the bottom of the vase and then children could use a u shaped magnet to try to get the paper clips out without putting their hand in the water. It took my girls a couple of tries before they figured out to just leave the magnet tight to the glass and the paperclips will follow it.

She had also glued little magnets to the ends of some cars. The girls loved having a "train" of cars to play with. The head librarian told me a little story. She said that there was a question on a pop quiz that said, what is something that starts with the letter M that picks up a lot of things....the number one answer- Mom! LOL!

We also made homemade bouncy balls, (didn't bounce so good, but it was fun!) played with Cloud Dough, made POM shooters and decorated sugar cookies! YUM!


Perhaps my 18 month old's favorite was the colored rice. I am still not sure how she colored the rice, but it was so fun! She had toys in there to scoop with and things were hidden....so they could treasure hunt! 

These are all super fun things that you can do with your kiddos this summer! We are huge fans of Science Bob at out house. He has some really fun experiments! Give some a try and leave a comment here telling me how your science experiments went over!