There is nothing I love more than watching young minds at work. Seeing a child create, use their imagination and experiment brings me a joy like no other. This is quite possibly why I am an early childhood educator.
This summer, I hope all of your kiddos stay away from the tech and create! With that being said, I’m here to help you with a few ideas to keep your kiddos occupied!
I’m so happy I was able to capture my godchild at work. She had a request of a “day of fun” with her Godmother (ME). So we put on our thinking caps, whipped out some household ingredients and got to work!
How to make Snow Dough
Ingredients:
- 3 Cups Baking Soda
- 1/2 Cup Conditioner
Materials:
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring Cup
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Mixing Spoon
- Small Spatula
- Tray
1. Pour 3 cups of baking soda in mixing bowl.
2. Measure out 1/2 cup of conditioner into liquid measuring cup.
3. Use spatula to get excess conditioner out of measuring cup.
4. Lightly mix baking soda and conditioner in mixing bowl.
5. Scoop out mixture onto tray and PLAY!
Finley LOVED playing with the Snow dough (and so did I)! Can you say, “do you want to build a snowman?” AND we may or may not have sang Let it GO a few times:)
How to Make Bouncy Balls
**This activity requires the help of a responsible adult**
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup Elmer’s glue
- Food coloring (4 drops)
- 1 1/2 TBSP Borax
- 1/4 cup warm water
Materials:
- Mixing Bowl
- 1/4 Measuring Cup
- Spatula
- Pour Elmer’s glue into a 1/4 measuring cup.
2. Pour 1/4 Elmers Glue into mixing bowl
Recommended from experience for an adult to get out excess glue. (Thanks DAD)!
3. Choose the color you want for your bouncy ball (we made purple). We put four drops into the mixture and the color was a pretty shade of purple.
MIX! MIX! MIX!
We also made a blue bouncy ball afterwards using 4 drop of food coloring.
4. Have an adult add in the borax. Mix well until borax and glue mixture begin to form a ball. (In my opinion, this is the most important step, so be sure he borax is well mixed with the glue mixture).
5. Add in 1/4 cup warm water and mix. The mixture will become moldable.
6. Take the mixture/ball and run it under warm water. Roll the mixture into a ball and let dry for one day. Then, bounce and play!
To be truthful, our first purple bouncy ball was a flop! That happens when experimenting. On try 2 our blue bouncy ball was more dense, which is why I highly recommend mixing the borax well. Cool experiment to do with the little ones this summer!
Other Activities:
- Create a Board Game
- Build an indoor/outdoor fort
- Develop a recipe
- Paint outdoors
- Make a lemonade stand
I hope you all enjoy this post! Be sure to leave a comments and share your success stories with me! 💋✌🏼