Science Activities for Kids

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Many of you may not know that my day job is as a science specialist for a school district--and I'm also the really cool aunt who shares fun science stuff with my nieces and nephews. I thought I'd share this fun collection of Science Activities with you (maybe you will try some out over Spring Break!) I'm a big believer in capitalizing on children's natural curiosity about even the most common of things. There is a lot of science to be learned from your kitchen, your bathroom or your backyard!

Austin Children's Museum
The Exploratorium at San Francisco
Utah Education Network online educational games
The Science Spot (middle school)
Shrinky Dinks (a great lesson on conservation of mass or physical changes)

Some of my favorite books with science learning activities for kids are:

Batteries, Bulbs and Wires by David Glover
Teaching Chemistry with Toys by Terrific Science Press
Exploring Matter with Toys
Investigating Solids, Liquids and Gases with Toys

Bedroom Update

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I've been continuing to tweak my bedroom remodel. I thought I was going to get all new bed linens, but the new headboard made things look so much better, that I decided to recycle what I already had.

I have also been trying to figure out if I could put some kind of photos or pictures above the bed, and then I ran into these "wall stickers" at TJ Maxx. I haven't ever done any of the vinyl decoration around the house, but this set of stickers was only $9.99 and in the perfect colors, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Couple of things about the stickers. The package says they are repositionable, but they are not. The pieces that I placed exactly in the right spot the first time are doing great, but the ones I moved around a couple times gave me some grief.

I picked up the silver-tone frame from my mom's house, now I just need to decide what to put in it.

Cornmeal Pancakes

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Every good thing I've ever learned to cook probably started with some help from my mom...and these pancakes are no exception. I got to visit last weekend and she made these very yummy pancakes for breakfast (how great is it that even with just me around, she does a full Saturday morning breakfast--love you Mom!)

1/2 C. all purpose flour

1/2 C. corn meal

1 T. baking powder

1 T. sugar

1 egg

4 T. melted butter

1 C. buttermilk (don't keep it in the house? Make your own by adding the juice of 1/2 lemon to a cup of milk)

Mix up the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients (if you are making your own buttermilk, do that first so it has a chance to curdle before you add it to the bowl).

On a medium-hot griddle, spray with non-stick spray and pour the batter. Just like regular pancakes, let it cook until the bubbles stop and the edges are dry. Flip and finish cooking through. This made ten 4" pancakes (what I would call normal size).

I topped mine with boysenberry syrup, but my mom makes a tasty "semi-homemade" blueberry syrup. She takes 1 cup of maple syrup (the fake kind actual works better than the real stuff) and adds a 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries. Bring to a simmer on the stove, add 1 tsp of good vanilla and then pour over the pancakes.

The pancakes are a cross between cornbread muffins and pancakes. Just so, so tasty!

Chocolate Mousse Cups

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This a really easy, fast dessert and yet it looks much more complicated. I was trying to think of a yummy dessert for a baby shower that I was attending and this fit exactly what I needed. Start with a package of frozen filo cups (in the dessert section of the frozen aisle at the store), a box of Jello Dark Chocolate Mousse, some raspberries and dark chocolate for creating shavings.

Mix up the mousse with a cup of milk. I let mine set overnight in the bowl (I think it would have been fine to pipe the mouse directly into the cups, but I was worried that the mousse would make the shell soggy since the party was the next day).
I put the refrigerated mousse in a zipper bag with a large star tip in the corner.
Ta da! It took less than 5 minutes to make the mousse cups (2 packages of cups needed 1 package of mousse)=30 bites

I topped each bite with a raspberry then used my vegetable peeler to shave some Lindt dark chocolate over the top. Super tasty (total hands on time=10 minutes, with refrigeration time at least 2 hours).

Fabric Flowers

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I'm a sucker for cute hair accessories--what can I say? Its hair jewelry! A couple weeks ago I sat next to my friend Lisa at church and she was wearing a super cute red felt barrett. Knowing Lisa, I guessed she had made it (and she did)--and it was so easy! I did do some searching online and found a great blog that I have added to my "must see" list..the Craft Snob. She has a great tutorial on this type of flower as well as many others.I used a Progresso soup can as my circle size (tried using my Twilight 44 oz cup, but it ended up bigger than I wanted...but you experiment with larger circles for yours). I cut the spiral about 1/2 inch wide (I wanted the flower to have a fairly low profile).

Glue the fabric as you wrap it and cut a small circle of felt to glue to the bottom to keep it all flat. I created an attachment point for the barrett/bobby pin so that I can use the barrett with other decorations or just by itself.

I whipped this one out in about 10 minutes from start to finish (including the pawing through the fabric box looking for my felt). You'll need: felt, craft glue, hot glue, barrett or bobby pin and maybe a button or pearl or sparkly to add to the flower center.

You can make cute flowers out of other scrap fabric. The following are made out of cotton. Cut a strip of fabric about 1.5 inches wide by about 24-36 inches (longer piece=bigger flower). Fold the fabric in half and start rolling up the center. Every now and again, twist the fabric so that you get more texture (use a dab of glue every wrap to keep things tight). Great for hair doo-dads or accents on purses.

Pedestal Bowl

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I have a really beautiful red pedestal bowl in my kitchen that mostly sits as display, with the occasional use for a party (but it sure looks pretty in the open shelving). Since I like the look, when I ran across the DIY Pedestal Bowl from the blog, The Speckled Dog I thought I had to try it.

First, I don't think I'd use gorilla glue again, instead, I'd screw through the bowl and countersink the screw and fill the hole with wood putty--BUT, since this bowl is for decoration, it will be fine.

I sanded the original finish a bit to help the paint stick, but I don't think I'd do that again next time either (hmmm, this is turning into a "what not to do" post)--since I wanted to create an antique-y worn look, it probably would have been better to leave the slick finish and paint right over it, it would have sanded off better.


I painted it some left over green paint from the TV cabinet (Dutch Boy Bullfrog Green), let it dry then did a light coat of Oatmeal (Ralph Lauren) paint. Some sanding to make it look old and a coat of poly.

I picked up a few possible bowls at the DI for future projects too (although big chunky candle sticks were in short supply, so I'll have to keep an eye out for the right base).

Ruffle T-Shirt Re-do

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I love ruffle-y tops. I bought one last year that was expensive, but it was my birthday and I really wanted it. But anyone who knows me, knows I do love clothes, so one top was not enough. A couple months ago at a craft night where we were all learning about recycling the things we have into new things, one neighbor showed how she took 2 matching t-shirts and cannabalized one to add embellishments to the other. Nice. I've been thinking about that for a while and finally decided to do something about it.

I started out with a long sleeve, 100% cotton t-shirt. This shirt had cuffs at the sleeves, rather than just a hemmed edge.
























Next, I cut off the sleeves (no going back now).


















I cut off the cuff about 1/4" above the seam.


















I pinned the cuff back on to what was left of the sleeve (remember, right sides together) and then sewed it back on right along the cuff's original seam.


















Next, I used the leftover fabric from the sleeve to cut 2" wide strips. I created the ruffles by running each strip through the sewing machine on a basting stitch, right down the center of each strip. (Use a backstitch on one end of the strip but NOT the other). To make the ruffles, pull one of the threads from the non-backstitched end to gather it up (pull more thread to make a tighter ruffle).


















Now, one strip at a time pin the ruffle along the edge of the neckline (I played around a lot with how I wanted to do this first. I thought about going around the whole neckline, making flowers instead of ruffles, etc...).



















Once you've pinned on a row of ruffles, sew it on with the sewing machine by sewing right over the top of the center seam. Then repeat the pinning and sewing process for each row. I spaced each row of ruffles about 1/2" apart. I ended up using 4 rows of ruffles.

























Ta-Da! New shirt from old shirt :)