Soda Geyser

I had heard of this experiment before but I didn't realize it was so easy to do.  Over at Steve Spangler's website he sells a tube for dropping the mentos into the 2-L bottle, but it isn't necessary.  We were able  to create a small geyser that entertained both children and daddy with out it.

Any soda will work--I choose Coca Cola (recently in science camp we observed that dark soda produced a higher geyser) and orange soda (Bam's favorite color).  I was told by the teacher that only mint mentos work.   We didn't use a whole package of mentos per bottle.  I used about 8 for the Coca Cola experiment and Bam used 3 mentos.  You really have to drop the candy in quickly otherwise you get covered in sticky soda.

My husband was so impressed and surprised by the Coca Cola experiment that he forgot to take pictures.  We didn't tell him what was going to happen.  Here is the start of the orange soda geyser.  

Bam and Bob running through the sprinklers afterwards.  More fun than tanking a bath after this sticky experiment.

building electrical circuits

Last summer, Grandpa gave us this electrical circuit kit during one of his visits.  Over that weekend, Grandpa played with it a lot but Bam showed no interest in it until just recently.  Bam dug this kit out and is loving it.  The booklet has lots of different projects to build.  Our kit is similar to this one (not quite as many components, but I am sure that I will be buying more components soon): 

Our first project was Morse Code

Then we made a voice recorder--huge hit with both boys!!

Bam and Bob also liked the water and salt water tester

The recommended age for this toy is 8-13 years old.  I have been having Bam find the components in the box (each component type has a number or letter and number identifier) and then I help him place them on the labeled grid.  The boys and I have been swamped with morning and afternoon swim lessons and family obligations lately. One more crazy week and then the boys and I can do more exploring and other fun activities.  

Books about firefighting

Bam is VERY into all things related to fire engines; therefore, Bob knows a lot about fire engines although he doesn't show quite the same level of interest. In the last few months we have even discovered an author, Chris Demarest, who has written several books about fire fighting.  We first discovered this book: 

Then about a month ago at our library we found another one of his books:

In this book the fire engines are green which Bam had to question because city fire engines are either red, white or yellow.  So we started talking about how the US Forest Service has green fire engines.  Bob surprised me the other day when he saw this book and said "Hotshots."  On the inside cover of this book, it lists two other books--one about smokejumpers, and one about about coast guard rescues, Bob's other obsession.  So off we went to the library in search of these two books.  

After reading the smokejumpers book, Bam was determined to create a smoking jumping costume so we did while Bob was napping.  We had almost everything for it but I need to come up with a better parachute.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.  

St Jude's Trike a Thon

This week we have been preparing for our St. Jude's trike a thon that I am hosting with a friend through our local mom's club.  The trike a thon fundraising program teaches young children about bike safety. We have had a lot of fun this week with the lesson plan.   

Each day we read one bike safety rule and colored the corresponding page in the coloring book.  

Bam wanted to see the lesson plan book while coloring so he could use the correct color for each object on the page.  Bob was just excited to be coloring.  

Once we had gone through the 4 lesson plans, we played the game.  

Before the bikes raced around the park, I had a local police officer come to re-enforce the bike safety rules.  All the kids loved having the police there.  

I really like this event and was impressed with St. Jude's program and attitude toward the fundraising aspect of the event.  Each child who raised $35 will receive a t-shirt.  I hope that we can do this event again next year.  

Butterfly release

Our nine butterflies were released into our backyard.  

The boys were eager to have them fly out of the "hatching" chamber. 

The butterflies were very excited when I moved them from our house to the backyard. When we opened the top, a couple of the butterflies flew out instantly--almost running into Bam and Bob.  By the end of the day all nine butterflies were free.

I did find this one in our yard later on.  

Learning about the butterfly life cycle has been fun.  The boys were very excited about the caterpillars.  Bam even took them to preschool to show his classmates.  The boys lost interest during the chrysalides stage, but were excited when the butterflies appeared.