This article teaches kids about chemistry and is an excellent introduction to the totally fun activities in homeschool chemistry (including exothermic reactions, phase shifts, and acid indicators). It’s also good for boy scouts working on a badge, or for any kids that love science experiments. These experiments are part of a homeschool science program that I teach, and I promise your kids will love it.

Chemistry is an exciting subject for kids of any age, especially if you set up a natural discovery environment for them to safely explore in. Let’s find out how to do this with your own homeschool science learning environment.

At a university, one of the first things you will learn about in your chemistry class is the difference between physical and chemical changes. An example of a physical change happens when you change the shape of an object, like wadding up a piece of paper. If you light the paper wad on fire, you now have a chemical change. You are rearranging the atoms that used to be the molecules that made up the paper into other molecules, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ash, and so forth.

How can you tell the difference between physical and chemical changes? There’s an easy way to tell if you have a chemical change: if something changes color, gives off light (like the light sticks used around Halloween), heat is absorbed (gets cold) or produces heat (gets warm). Some quick examples of physical changes include tearing cloth, rolling dough, stretching rubber bands, eating a banana, or blowing bubbles.

Shopping List:

§ Rubbing alcohol (largest bottle)

§ Hydrogen peroxide (largest bottle)

§ Baking soda (largest box you can find)

§ Distilled white vinegar (largest size)

§ Washing soda (near the laundry soap)

§ Citric acid (optional, but nice to have)

§ One head of red cabbage

§ Clear ivory dish soap (small bottle)

§ Alum (check the spice section)

§ Single-use cold pack (not the gel kind)

§ Plastic zipper bags and old water bottles

§ Muffin cup baking tray (12 cups or more)

Let’s mix up chemicals that bubble, ooze, freeze, and change colors. Before we start, you’ll need to get these items together: a muffin cup baking tray, water, vinegar (acetic acid), baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), washing soda (sodium carbonate), rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, citric acid, ammonium chloride (don’t activate the cold pack, but instead cut open and empty the contents into a plastic bag and discard the water pouch inside), aluminum sulfate (“alum” in the spice section of the grocery store or drug store), a head of red cabbage and a clear liquid dish soap such as Ivory.

Cover your kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth (if you have small kids, put another tablecloth on the floor to catch the spills). Place your chemicals on the table. A set of muffin cups make for an excellent chemistry experiment lab. (Alternatively, you can use empty plastic ice cube trays.) You will mix in these cups. Leave enough space in the cups for your chemicals to mix and bubble up – don’t fill them all the way when you do your experiments!

Set out your liquid chemicals in easy-to-pour containers, such as water bottles (be sure to label them, as they all will look the same): alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, water, acetic acid, and dish soap (mixed with water). Set out small bowls (or zipper bags if you’re doing this with a crowd) of the powders with “scoopers” made of the tops of your water bottles. The small “scoopers” regulate the amounts you need for a muffin-sized reaction. Label the powders, as they all look the same.

Although these chemicals are not harmful to your skin, they can cause your skin to dry out and itch. Wear gloves (latex or similar) and eye protection (safety goggles), and if you’re not sure about an experiment or chemical, just don’t do it. (Skip the peroxide and cold pack if you have small kids.)

What about the red cabbage? Red cabbage juice has anthocyanin, which makes it an excellent indicator for these experiments. Anthocyanin is what gives leaves, stems, fruits, and flowers their colors. Did you know that certain flowers like hydrangeas turn blue in acidic soil and turn pink when transplanted to a basic soil? This next step of the experiment will help you understand why. You’ll need to get the anthocyanin out of the cabbage and into a more useful form, as a liquid “indicator”.

Prepare the indicator by coarsely chopping the head of red cabbage and boiling the pieces for five minutes on the stove in a pot full of water. Carefully strain out all the pieces (use a fine mesh strainer) and the reserved liquid is your indicator (it should be purple).

When you add this indicator to different substances, you will see a color range: hot pink, tangerine orange, sunshine yellow, emerald green, ocean blue, velvet purple, and everything in between. Test out the indicator by adding drops of cabbage juice to something acidic, such as lemon juice and see how different the color is when you add indicator to a base, like baking soda mixed with water.

Have your indicator in a bottle by itself. Old soy sauce bottles or other bottles with a built-in regulator that keeps the pouring to a drip is perfect. You can also use a bowl with a bulb syringe, but cross-contamination is a problem. Or not – depending if you want kids to see the effects of cross-contamination during their experiments. (The indicator bowl will continually turn different colors throughout the experiment.)

Your mission: To find the reactions that generate the most heat (exothermic), absorb the most heat (endothermic), and which are the most impressive in their reaction (the ohhhh-ahhhhh factor).

The Experiment: Start mixing it up! When I personally teach this class, let them have at all the chemicals at once (even the indicator), and of course, this leads to a chaotic mix of everything. When the chaos settles down, and they start asking good questions, I reveal a second batch of chemicals they can use. (I have two identical sets of chemicals, knowing that the first set will get used up very quickly.)

Tip for Testing Chemical Reactions: Periodically hold your hand under the muffin cups to test the temperature.

After the initial burst of enthusiasm, your homschool science students will intrinsically start asking better questions. They will want to know why their green goo is creeping onto the floor while someone else just bubbled up hot pink, seemingly mixed from the same stuff. Give them the change to figure out a more systematic approach, and ask if they need help before you jump in to assist.

Homeschool Science Teaching Tips: You can make this lab more advanced by adding a postage scale (to measure the solids in exact measurements), small beakers and pipettes for the liquid measurements, and data sheets to record temperature, reactivity, and acid/base indicator levels. Hint – make the data sheet like a matrix, to be sure you get all the possible combinations.

Use the indicator both before and after you mix up chemicals, and you will be surprised and dazzled by the results!

____________________________________________________________

Serve a minimum of sweet treats. You don’t want your guests suffering from ‘sugar overload’ during the party. To celebrate the occasion, serve chicken fingers with a blood (any red dipping sauce.) If you prepare them from scratch, it’s not hard to make them resembling the more human variety. Add a sliced almond for the finger nail for a realistic approach.

Another dish to try is to add equal parts red, blue, and yellow food color to spaghetti after it’s been cooked so it turns an ugly brownish color. Serve with a green pesto sauce and call it snakes in the swamp.

Make goofy eyeball meatballs. Shape seasoned ground meat into an oval with a flat top and bottom, bake until done. Cut a round circle out of mozzarella cheese about the size of a half dollar or one inch in diameter. Cut grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes into three slices. Cut black olives in half. Assemble the goofy eyeballs by placing a slice of cheese on the meatball, then a slice of tomato on the cheese and top with a black olive half. Vary the placement of the toppings so the eyeballs are looking in different directions.

If you will be serving punch, why not serve the ghoulish variety? Simply make your favorite punch and add a few ghoul hands. To make these hands, fill non-powdered rubber gloves with cranberry or other red juice. (Don’t overfill, the fingers of the glove should still move easily.)

Close gloves tightly with rubber bands and freeze flat on cookie sheets, which have been lined with paper towels. When ready to serve, open gloves with scissors and add to punch. You may want to break off one or two fingers and add them separately.

A fun punch can be with one quart of lime drink, one quart of lemon lime soda and one cup of lime sherbet. The sherbet should be added right before serving. Stir so the sherbet foams up a bit with the soda. Dust the foam lightly with cocoa powder to resemble dirt.

It’s not a good idea to use dry ice in your punch to make it smoke. Curious hands may try to touch the dry ice resulting in freezer burn. Instead place the dry ice in containers out of reach, such as the back of a table and you’ll still have the atmosphere of the smoky fog without the worry of accidents.

Keep the food simple and familiar but with a twist. Rename favorites in the Halloween theme. Use food coloring in blues, greens, and browns to alter the way a dish looks. Or use familiar food in unfamiliar ways. For example blanch a cauliflower head, break apart and then reassemble (this makes the cauliflower easier to serve) cover the cauliflower with ranch dressing then using ketchup in a squeeze bottle outline each floret with the ketchup so it looks like a brain.

Kids truly love playing with these, and they enjoy decorating the boxes just as much. These are a great idea if you take care of a lot of children, or babysit because the kids will stay occupied.

Just throw some newspaper on the table and let them be creative with the paint, markers and glue. Here’s what you need:

? A shoe box
? Seven or Eight Rubber bands
? Some Paint
? Markers

First, take the top from the shoe box, and allow the kids to paint the box in whatever colors they want. After you let the shoebox dry, you will build a guitar by placing the rubber bands around the shoebox.

You want to place them around the smaller width of the box. You should place them all the same width away from each other.

To allow the kids to further build a guitar that they will love, you can let them glue on sparkly accessories, a length of string so they can place the guitar around their neck, or any kind of other decorations they want.

A great idea if you have more than one kid is to make them some other instruments, like homemade maracas, or drums. They will love having a band, or just playing one instrument, and you will love the fact that they’re occupied!

If you don’t like this method, you can get more options at http://www.buildaguitar.net/

You don’t have to be a great guitar player to enjoy all the fun of playing. Sometimes you just need to go with it and have a good time no matter what you sound like.

With Valentineâ??s Day fast approaching, considering making some simple Valentineâ??s snacks that the kids can bring to school? Whether you are making them for your own childâ??s lunch or as a special treat for the class, following are some snacks that are simple to transport and simple for the kids to consume once they dig in!

Marshmallow-Popcorn Hearts are a simple twist on popcorn balls. With this recipe, you can skip the Karo syrup and simply melt some marshmallows instead! This quick and simple recipe is similar to Rice Krispie bars, only with popcorn instead!

Hereâ??s what you need to get started:

â?¢ 10 cups popped popcorn

â?¢ 3 tablespoons margarine or butter

â?¢ 1 10-ounce package regular marshmallows

â?¢ Red food coloring

â?¢ Red colored sugar

Directions

â?¢ Put the popped corn (minus the unpopped kernels) into a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan and keep it warm in your 300 degree oven.

� Melt the butter/margarine and marshmallows in a large kettle or in the microwave. (Microwave: 1 ½ to 2 minutes, stirring once) Stir the mixture until it is smooth, no lumps, and then add the red food coloring.

â?¢ Stir in the popped popcorn- about half at a time.

â?¢ Wait 10 minutes or so until it is cool enough to handle.

â?¢ Grease individual heart shaped pans with butter.

â?¢ Press the popcorn mixture into the greased pans.

â?¢ Cool the popcorn hearts. Remove from pans. Sprinkle each with red colored sugar.

â?¢ Wrap each individually in plastic wrap- pink or red finishes it off nicely.

â?¢ Makes 9 hearts.

This one is a little messy, but for an extra-special treat, exceptions can made to almost any rule. Take along a pre-packaged wet napkin in a zippered plastic bag to aid in simple clean-up.

Candy Apple or Caramel Apple Valentines-

1 bag of caramels

1 pack of craft sticks (like popsicle sticks)

1 bag of apples or your choice

wax paper

cake decorating tool

Flavored icing

Melt the caramels or hard candy according to the package directions. Insert a craft stick into one end of each apple. Dip the apple into the melted caramel, covering it entirely. Lift the apple and let it drip for a few seconds and then set it on the wax paper until entirely set- about two hours) Use a cake decorating tool (or a plastic bag with a hole in the corner and a decorating tip) to write a sweet message on each apple. Wrap in plastic wrap and secure the wrap at the top of the apple with a rubber band, leaving the stick exposed as a handle.

Finally, you can whip up these peppermint stars from a quick meringue batter. They make a sweet little treat that carries well in a lunch.

Peppermint Stars

Makes: 45 cookies

Prep: 30 minutes

Bake: 15 minutes

Ingredients

â?¢ 2 egg whites

â?¢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

â?¢ 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

â?¢ 1/2 cup sugar

â?¢ 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

â?¢ Red food coloring (optional)

Directions

1. Place egg whites in a medium mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Line two large cookie sheets with brown paper or foil; set aside.

3. Add vanilla and cream of tartar to egg whites. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form (tips stand straight) and sugar dissolves. Quickly beat in peppermint extract. Tint pink with several drops of red food coloring, if desired.

4. Using a pastry tube with a large star decorating tip, pipe cookies onto prepared cookie sheets (form cookies about 1-1/2 inches in diameter). Bake in a 300 degree F oven for 15 minutes. Turn off oven and let cookies dry in oven with door closed about 30 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets. Cover and store in a dry place. Makes 45 cookies.

Your children will be excited when you take the time to prepare these special Valentineâ??s Day snacks for their lunches. After all, special treats from the ones who loves us most are what makes Valentineâ??s Day special!

Getting children to create Christmas presents for their friends and family members is a definite means to keep them happily busy and with any luck out of trouble. Here are a few ideas.
A Framed Art

Any kid can sketch. Hand them a thick white paper, some pencils, crayolas, or watercolors and let them draw a Christmas picture. Once the work of art is finished, have the picture framed efficiently in a classy looking frame. It may even surpass as fine art by a master, people act as if to appreciate but no one really does. That might make an excellent present for a snobbish relative, don’t you think?

Seriously, an image sketched by a grandchild would be cherished by the grandparents. Place the drawing on a nice frame and let them offer it to their grandpa or grandma as Christmas present.
Activity or Picture Books

You could let the children make picture books or activity books as presents to those they adore. When I told my children to create a birthday card for grandpa, they created picture books inclusive with lift-the-flap cut outs.

Take the children to the library to flick through the picture books on hand for additional ideas. At the last part of the outing propose that they create their own picture books.

Get 5 pieces of A4 size paper and fold it up in half.

Attach them in the center to make a booklet.

Hand out a booklet to each child.

Let them decide what goes on each page before they really start working.

Supply them with colored papers, glue, pencils, scissors, colored pens and crayons.

The moment they get used to it, they can create a picture book for each person on their list.

They may even create a picture book for you.
Friendship Bracelets

Do you have a pack of inexpensive beads with holes big enough to fit a thick and stiff rubberized string?
Allow the children to have the beads and the rubberized string.

Instruct them to thread the rubberized string through the beads. When the string of beads is quite long enough, teach them how to fix a knot with the free ends to lock the bracelet. Allow them to have the rest of the beads and rubberized string to make Christmas presents for the girls.

A Few Friendly Stones

Let the children gather up smooth palm sized stones. Clean and dry them. Bring out some white, black, and colored art papers. Let the children to create eyes and mouth, by cutting out and pasting these facial features on the stones. Allow them to be innovative and include mustache, eyebrows, a bow tie or whatever they could think of.

Once the glue is completely dried, cut out a piece of velvet that is a bit smaller than the stone and glue it at the bottom of each stone for a final touch.

With some ingenuity, the holidays can be used up fruitfully, making presents for one and all this Christmas. The children may even astonish you with a few creation of their own.

Prepare yourself for Christmas

It would be real fun working with your child and would also add to your festive mood. Here are some easy Halloween crafts that you can try with your children.

1. Pick out fun foam from the neighboring craft or department stores. Next buy a pack of sheets is varied shades like white, green, black and orange. Now, cut out oval & circular shapes in varied colors or paper.

On the World Wide Web that is the internet; look out for colorful Halloween images. Try searching bats, witches, black cats and skeletons. Take out prints of these images through a printer. You might need to reduce the size of the images so as to fit on to the base you have made. In case you are a good artist and can draw well, try drawing some images on your own! Now cut these images from contrasting shades of fun foam. Glue these on the shapes you had cut out. Now, punch a hole on the top and draw a string through this hole. Alas, hang the fun ornaments where ever you feel like!

2. You can also adapt ideas from some difficult crafts. Try hanging scary ghosts on your trees.

For this pick out an ordinary plastic bag from the near by grocery store. Now cut off its handles. In place of the head, place Styrofoam ball at the top. Secure it using a rubber band. Now, shred the bag’s bottom into strips. Above the head, poke a hole so as to insert a string to hang. Draw a scary face on the ball!

You can also make your ghost sing in the wind. Just attach some bells at the bottom of strips. This would b real fun!

3. Purchase some dark colored candles. Black would be a great option. Give your child interesting trinkets like candy corns, sequins, fun foam shapes, etc., just any vague things you get your hands on. Tell your child to glue those trinkets on the candles. Place them where ever you like in the house for some fun Halloween decoration!

Try these and apply your creativity to device more of such easy and interesting stuff for your kids!

Today kids are becoming fascinated with technology at much younger ages. Even toddlers and preschoolers want a digital camera of their own. Parents may wonder which is the best option for their child or if there is a preschool model that is rugged enough to take the abuse that young children often dish out. There are some great products out there that have great reviews. Here is a look at some of the most popular kids digital cameras.

Go Diego Go Digital Camera

Now kids can go exploring themselves with their very own Go Diego Go camera. It is targeted towards kids 6 years and up and has great sound effects and bilingual phrases. It also has photo editing software so kids can play with their pictures. It has a 1.4″ color LCD and a built in auto flash. It has a light that lets you know when the battery is low and an auto switch off after one minute. The reviews on this camera are middle of the road. It generally got three out of five stars. The price runs around $40.

Bratz Plugged In Digital Camera

This kids digital camera has very good reviews since it gets four out of five stars. It has 3.0 megapixels which is higher than most kids models. It also has a CD Rom with software and a USB cable to transfer images to your computer. It has an SD card slot and also a webcam mode. It has 3 flash settings and a 10 second self timer. The Bratz Plugged In also has a 1.1″ color LCD. It take both still shots and videos. This is a great one for those kids who are more advanced or want more features. It runs about $70.

Disney Pix Micro Digital Camera Featuring Hannah Montana

Hannah Montana is one of the most beloved kids kids shows on right now. Millions of little girls would love to have a Hannah Montana camera. This one has three out of five stars based on user reviews. It has a 1.1″ color LCD display. It holds up to 40 pictures and runs on only 1 AAA battery. It also comes with great software that Hannah Montana fans will love. This kids camera is only $20.

Fisher Price Digital Camera

The Fisher Price Digital Camera is made specifically for preschoolers and kids up to about age 7. It has large handles that are rubber for easy gripping. The tough design makes it hard to break and if kids drop it, it is no big deal. It has a 1.6 color LCD screen so that kids can see the pictures they have taken right away. It has 1.3 megapixels and 8MB of internal memory, enough for about 60 pictures. It also has a slot for an SD card. You can connect it to the computer with the USB cord so that they can share their pictures online. It has an auto flash feature and a wrist band. It also comes in either pink or blue. The reviews on this product are excellent. It runs about $55.

Vtech Kidizoom Camera

This is a great preschool digital camera and the reviews support it. Parents rave that their kids love this camera. It has a connector cable that lets kids use it with the TV or the computer. It also has fun games and movies on it that kids love. It also has a neat editing feature that lets kids do wacky and fun things to their pictures. It has large handles for easy gripping, and a double viewer and LCD screen to make taking pictures a snap. It is a great preschool digital camera that, even though it is new, has already won several awards. The cost for this top rated camera is between $55 and $60.

Both the Vtech and the Fisher Price made to be durable, and both claim to be virtually indestructible. Either one of these cameras would be a great choice for a preschooler who loves to take pictures.

Recently, the Carolina Beach has implemented a “No Lost Child” program which will use color coded wristbands to keep the children at their beach safe. Each lifeguard station has been painted a specific color that corresponds with their batch of colored wristbands. The life guards at these stations are to hand out durable, waterproof wristbands to the young beachgoers in order to cut down on the time spent looking for lost children. The color of the wristbands match the lifeguard stand closest to the family, so kids can be found more efficiently. “Probably the most serious issues that lifeguards deal with are people in distress in the water,” association President Chris Brewster said. “But perhaps one of the most common, most time-consuming and most distracting is lost children.” As the lifeguards main duty is to watch what is going on in the water, this will definitely cut down on the time spent looking for children and allow the lifeguards to get back to their main duty.

Another inventive use of wristbands for child safety comes into play when a family is going to a largely crowded area such as a shopping center, zoo, or stadium. These types of venues can cheaply and easily have custom wristbands printed up with their logo, plus a blank “form” for a child’s name, parents’ cell phone numbers, and a message such as, “please call if you see this child unattended.” In the event that a child wanders off or goes missing, security or anyone with a cell phone (most likely a large portion of the people in the area) can easily get in touch with the parent and help reunite them with the lost child. This proactive approach shows the public and patrons that a venue cares about the safety of their children.

While wristbands can be applicable for numerous uses, keeping children safe is definitely an important one. It has not only been proven effective, but it’s also cost efficient. From city departments all the way to the individual family, wristbands are a great way to keep your kids safe and out of harm’s way. Whether a color system or text based wristbands work best for you, never forget the power of a wristband to aide in the search of lost children.

Pink kids id wristbands were meant to raise breast cancer awareness, green to support the US troops in Iraq. Lance Armstrong was the man that really brought silicone wristbands to the spotlight since he designed the LIVESTRONG wristband to fundraise money for his foundation. Nowadays, the Lance Armstrong wristband represents the strong movement of many people who fight against cancer.
The yellow kids id wristbands of the Lance Armstrong Foundation is a silicone wristband, which means that it is made from 100% kids id wristbands. This material is a semi-inorganic polymer that is water resistant, heat stable, and very flexible.

That is the reason why these kids id wristbands are comfortable and easy to wear. They are suitable for all climatic conditions and they can bring a message or logo on them. There are various types of wristbands such as the embossed, debossed, screen printed, glow in the dark, color core, color filled. kids id wristbands can be produced massively at one low cost. Most manufacturers offer good discounts if they are ordered at a wholesale.

Some governmental organizations use silicone wristbands for community awareness, festivals, military support, outreach programs, and humanitarian assistance. Some non-profit organizations use them to raise awareness for certain issues. Social clubs use them for different purposes like car clubs, academic clubs, membership, etc. Religious groups use them in summer camps, moral awareness, bible verses, and so on. Sport teams use them to support and promote themselves.
You can find many companies online that offer kids id wristbands of all types. Some of these types are the segmented wristbands, swirled wristbands, letter filled kids id wristbands, USB kids id wristbands, standard wristbands and more.

They come in different colors such as fluorescent yellow, green, orange, single color, marbled, color changing, ultra violet reflective colors, and glow colors. Wristbands can be customized so that any slogan and logo can be printed, raised or engraved on the stripe. These silicone kids id wristbands can also be used as a promotional item to advertise your company, foundation, organization, or social club.