Kitchen Science – Easy Indoor Fun!
Turn Winter Couch Potatoes into Kitchen Wizards
Getting your kids off the couch and into the lab will be the hardest part of these fun and amazing kitchen projects. With some simple ingredients you can turn your child into a mad scientist whose amazement and wonder will make the mess a small price to pay. (FYI: these aren’t even that messy.)
Instant Ice Experiment
Ask your child if they ever wondered how Frozone was able to make ice instantly. When he or she yells a resounding, “YES!” Break out a little rock salt (you probably have that handy), ice cubes and a bottle of water. Check out the video here for directions.
Everything is Better with Butter
Put some sticks of butter in the freezer and then allow your child to carve fun shapes into them with a butter knife. Google and Pinterest have a number of easy and more complex ideas that will get your children’s creative juices flowing! You can even have kids make their own butter and show how matter can change states from a liquid to a solid! And once you have made butter, you might as well make some ice cream. All it takes are a few ingredients, a couple coffee cans, ice and rock salt combined with some elbow grease and a little patience.
Kitchen Science Question: Is it Really Honey?
This experiment is pretty darn cool. Take your child on a Bee research project – if the weather is OK, head to a local bee farm and let them see the bees in actions. Crummy weather? Do a stay-at-home field trip and research on the internet to provide background for this kitchen experiment. Once children understand how bees turn nectar into honey and where they store the honey, try this supertastic honey experiment from Experimental Express that is cooler than Hollywood special effects! Can you tell which “honey” is real honey?
Color Explosion
Don’t worry, it isn’t as bad as it sounds! Fill a cookie sheet with a shallow amount of milk. Then have kids paint the milk by putting drops of food color into the milk (don’t stir). Now take a q-tip and dip it in dish soap and then touch the milk then observe the fireworks (no actual fire, just color explosions).
Bounce off the Walls
When you kids are bouncing off the walls, why not make some bouncy balls. This cool project will have your kids wild about science and kitchen creations as they watch a chemical reaction where liquids turn to solids.
Slime
It’s likely that you and your kids have made slime before, but if you haven’t, you absolutely need to. If you have, there are so many different kinds to make that you should do it again. A few ingredients create a mesmerizing substance that will have your kids playing for hours.