Science Experiments

I have felt really guilty lately. I am always tired. I am often grumpy. My poor kids have watched more t.v. and played more video games lately then I ever care to admit to anyone. So trying to snap myself out of this unhealthy routine I took them to our favorite store, Hobby Lobby, to find a project or two to do with them. I found these cool kits made by ScienceWiz, I bought the Electricity kit and the Chemistry kit.

The Chemistry kit was fun. I got to teach the kids about 3 of the 4 stages of Matter. I only include there are 4 because David likes to correct me that there are 4 and not just 3. The 4 are: Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma. But Plasma is pretty impossible to explain to a 3 and 4 year old.

After talking about the basic 3 stages we did an experiment making a candle (kit includes the clear pieces of wax and instructions) we needed: broken crayons (what parent of young children doesn't have broken crayons?), 2 empty tin cans (like a soup can), a piece of string... I used embroidery thread, a pot of boiling water.

We took the wax pieces and crayon pieces, put them in one soup can, put the can into the boiling water and watched it melt. The solid turning into a liquid.

Once it was melted we filled the other soup can with cold water. Then I took the string and dipped into the hot wax, then dipped it into the cold water, into the hot wax, back to the cold water. Until a candle formed :) You can see by the picture that it is quite crooked. So basically we turned the liquid back into a solid, but this time the solid took on a new form and the crayons gave it color.

Final step. Light the candle. Now the wax turns into a gas, some of it just melts of course. Violet gasped when she saw the vapors and exclaimed: It's turning into a gas!

They were fascinated by the experiment. The next day we did electricity. That kit really contains it all (except a battery) and is safe. It was really fun to do. Now Liam constantly tells me how much he loves science, and can he do his science today? David told me to buy more of those kits. It has been a great experience.

I should also mention that the Chemistry kit includes many more projects, not just the candle :)