Pinspired // Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar

I am always looking around (mostly on Pinterest) for fun new art projects for the kids. I'm normally the "Let's go outside and make mudpies" kind of mom, but with it being so cold out we sometimes need to get a bit creative. I ran across this pin the other day and though it would be a perfect cold weather project. Unfortunately I pinned this and later realized that it didn't track back to anything... just a lonely old error message announcing that the blog has been removed. Boooo! So if this is from your blog, or your sweet darling boy let me know so I can give you some credit!. Ok, let's get started!

Since the blog did not link back I didn't have any directions but I figured, "Hey, how hard can it be?" And the answer was a resounding--- "Not that hard". But I figured I would give you a bit of instruction just.in.case. 

So we started with a set of ingredients  found right in our kitchen. I filled each of the round (I want to call them pie tins but they aren't tin...hummm, dished for lack of a better, more technical word) dished with about 1 cup of baking soda (not pictured). You can eyeball it, just make sure the baking soda covers the bottom of the dish. You also need:  *Food Coloring * Vinegar * Medicine Droppers * Small Cups * 

When we do art I like to get all of the supplies out and allow the girls to watch me put everything together. They took turns smelling the vinegar and Baylie insisted on calling it stinky water. For kids this age it can be difficult to disassociate something that they come into contact with multiple times a day with a specific set of properties and qualities and make a new association to something else with the exact same properties and very similar qualities. So, for the remainder of the project we called it stinky water. But my wheels were already turning trying to think of a science project to compare the qualities of water and vinegar (it's in the works..I'll share soon.) Anywhoo, I digress.

I let the girls choose what color they wanted and stirred the food coloring into the vinegar. These are droppers we got from CVS once when we were picking up meds for one of the girls. We just asked for two extra and the pharmacy tech threw some in. I bet your pharmacy would hook you up too, just ask!

*****I do not recommend reusing these droppers for medication after this project. I have no scientific reasoning for this, it just seems like a bad idea...maybe I'm paranoid. We just threw ours in the art box to keep them separate from the ones for medication. *********

Ok, now the fun part! I think Frankie about passed out from excitement when she saw the baking soda fizz. Who am I kidding? *I* was excited! They both caught on right away and it was giggling and screaming from that point on.

 Baylie had a bit of trouble with the dropper. She kept wanting to grab it rather than pinch it which made it difficult to apply the pressure needed for good suction. This is a great activity for teaching toddlers how to pinch and it's great for their fine motor development (the same muscles used later when they need to properly grasp a pencil when learning how to write). She eventually got it, but we'll be doing this activity again to reinforce the grasp.

Any yes, they are clothes-less. I keep meaning to make them some art smocks, but I keep forgetting until I actually need them. So for now we strip them down to their skivvys. Food coloring + clothes + ME doing laundry = BIG no no

And there you have it. This kept them occupied for a good 45 minutes+. Eventually they figured out that they could suck up the baking soda and put it in their vinegar. Talk about messy! But they enjoyed it and overall it was a success. So why don't you give it a try with your little ones and let me know how it goes! Until next time!