Let fun happen... learning will follow

Sometimes, one thing leads to another, leads to another, leads to a disaster of a mess in the kitchen.

We started by making our own bubble solution.

Some water, dish soap, and corn syrup.  I forget exactly what proportions I used...in fact, I think I just looked up some bubble recipes on pinterest and did something from memory that lands somewhere in the middle of all the ones I found.  A cup of water, a quarter cup of soap, and a tablespoon of syrup...maybe? 

This was the science portion of the day.  We talked about bubbles coming from the soap, adding water so we can blow them because the soap alone is too heavy, and corn syrup to make the bubbles stronger so they don't pop right away.  Is this the true chemistry behind bubble solution? I don't know... but it seemed right enough and understandable for a preschooler.

We used a water bottle with the bottom cut out, a block from our shape sorter, and several different kinds of bubble wands/blowers to test out our bubble soap.

After blowing some bubbles I remembered the cool bubble art I'd seen on pinterest.  I added some tempera paint just like the pinner said to.  Garbage.  Maybe I didn't mix it well enough.  I was hoping to drop in different colors and see them swirl together as the bubbles were blown.  Didn't happen.

Food coloring saves the day.  Using a straw to blow bubbles into a dish of soap was really entertaining... I even had my own fun when I'm-too-cool-for-this 3 year old gave up (1.5 year old had a blast).  We then gently laid paper on top of the bubbles in the dish and gave a few light taps on top to make a bubble print.

Since we still had some uncolored bubble soap in a bowl, I grabbed the Thomas and Friends bath toys we have (that haven't actually seen a bath because they are too much fun to incorporate into other activities), some scrubby brushes, and washcloths to make an engine wash.  At this point 3 year old re-joined us.

Once the engines were all clean he wanted to make them dirty again.  I asked his preferred method to dirty engines and he shouted, "MUD!"

Not just any mud, rainbow mud.  A few squirts of paint on a long sheet of paper... and I now have some beautiful art waiting to find a frame.  It came out great!

And then of course we had to re-wash our "Really Useful Engines."

Sometimes one thing leads to another and before you know it, you've passed the morning without the TV or iPad, and you're even proud of the mess in the kitchen.