Saltwater Taffy Slime

We've seen all kinds of recipes lately for "fluffy" slime. Mixing up mysterious compounds and potions is always really high up on our kids' fun lists. And, as I mention in Banish Boredom, I love how much we get out of sensory play -- from the making to the playing to the cleaning (everybody and everything else) up, sensory activities are always a good solid chunk of play time. Plus, I really love any activity that incorporates both science and art. Anyway ... we decided to try out a fluffy slime recipe ourselves (thanks to Little Bins for Little Hands!).

After watching the kids mix, shape, and play for the better part of a morning (including taking a break to shower up!), I decided that we'd have to call this Saltwater Taffy Slime! Watching saltwater taffy being made along the New Jersey boardwalk is one of our fave summer vacation activities and this reminded me so much of the sweet treat. And since the recipe we followed uses saline solution, the saltwater idea really stuck.

It was an incredibly messy activity, but the kids loved every single part of it. The slime we made ended up being really, really sticky for much of the mixing process. But the kids actually been bickering a lot that morning, so I got a huge kick out of them two of them being literally stuck together while they worked to make the slime. It was perfect!

They let the slime sit for a bit while they cleaned up and it got less fluffy, but also less sticky. It turned much more like flubber than slime, but they loved that too. They popped air bubbles, rolled it out, and even bounced it.

If you're in need of a good mid-summer activity, give this one a try!

Spooky Sensory Recipes

I'm a big fan of sensory activities, an entire chapter of my book is on them in fact!, and we do them year round. But Halloween is a particularly perfect time to engage kids in spooky sensory fun. No matter what age our kids are, they love exploring slimy, gooey, and spooky materials. Here are a few of our favorites!

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Whale (Dolphin) Watching off the Jersey Shore

The kids' grandparents booked an amazing whale watching tour over our July trip to the Jersey Shore. I've seen killer whales once on a Seattle ferry ride, but the kids never have. And with all our recent watching of Shark Week, they were pumped to get out on the water and put their newfound marine explorer skills to work. We didn't spot any whales, but we saw a TON of dolphins and had a beautiful (and much cooler) ride along the shore.

Grow Your Own Crystals!

This science project was one of our most favorite from our Summer Bucket List so far! The crystals grew incredibly fast and are super sturdy. And we are all about anything mythical these days. Head over to Honest to Nod to check out how we made these awesome unicorn crystals!

Icy Goop

We are no strangers to making goop (our basic recipe even made it into Banish Boredom), but I thought we could do a cool take on the activity to make a great combo of art, science, and sensory fun. Enter icy goop.

2016 Summer Bucket List -- 101+ Ideas of Family Fun for the Summer!!

I can hardly believe that our kiddos are out of school in just a few days! While summer doesn't technically start until June 20th, our summer starts when school is done. So that means it's time for a new bucket list! We crossed a paltry 19 items off of our spring list—it just wasn't meant to happen for us this past season. But we are back and we mean business. Follow us along on Instagram to see our progress—we'd love to hear what everyone has going on too!!

DIY Potions Station

As our kids get older and able to undertake more complicated projects, I tend to forget about how much fun they have just simply puttering around. Cami has been asking for lots of sensory play lately (not her words, but those are the activities she means) and both kids have been interested in Harry Potter again, so they asked for a Potions Station on a recent playdate. As we'd never put one of those together, I just kind of went with whatever we had at home, giving some thought to the kinds of materials that would work well together and provide some sensory fun.

DIY Snow Putty

Almost all of the 2+ feet of snow dumped on D.C. a few weeks ago has disappeared. So we decided to make our own! Head over to The Land of Nod's blog to check out our DIY Snow Putty. Part science, part art, part sensory fun. And all much easier to deal with than the real deal.

A Cultured Science Experiment: Grow Your Own Bacteria

My parents bought the kids an awesome microscope for Christmas and they lucked out by getting a superb demonstration from both of their scientist grandparents last weekend. As we were reading through the accompanying book and talking about viewing different organisms, I remembered that the kids and I spent an afternoon last year culturing bacteria and I completely forgot to share the experiment!

Gingerbread Playdough

We've been on a much slower pace than in the summer, but we're still getting after our Fall Bucket List. We tackled a new gingerbread playdough recipe yesterday that made the entire house smell deeeeelish. And the kids loved decorating "cookies" for the bulk of an afternoon -- they felt like they were getting in on the holiday cooking, but managed not to leave me with an entire plate of cookies to eat. An all around win.

Weekend Makes

I can proudly say that I held off on buying Halloween candy until just a few days ago and it's been deeply hidden away, waiting to see the light of day until tomorrow. But, between our recent move to a more residential neighborhood and the kids finally being old enough, I think we're set up for some serious trick or treating this year. Which means that I also need a plan to deal with all the candy that is going to flood in after I hand out our stash (other than me eating all of it). Thus, candy Weekend Makes. Happy Halloweening!!

1 / love this idea breaking down Wayne Thiebaud compositions -- maybe a little advanced, but I think we could try it.

2 / use a small candy box to make an instant comfort box like this! I know one little lady that would love to have something like that at school.

3 / you'll have to adjust based on your candy haul, but I love the idea of this edible cell for a good science lesson.

4 / paint with Skittles!

5 / a good science experiment for the younger set -- will the candy sink or float!?

Spooky Oobleck!

My guys have been chomping at the bit to make a fall sensory project (see our favorites round up here) and I thought it would be fun to loop in a little science at the same time (it's on our Fall Bucket List after all!). So we decided to make a batch of spooky oobleck!

Weekend Makes

Our kiddos are deep into Halloween mode. We finally have a home with a front yard to decorate and they've been adding and adding to it all week long. I cut them off from purchasing any more pre-made decor, so they've been working wonders on cardboard. Needless to say, I'm in the mood for some different makes this weekend. These Halloween STEM activities should do the trick!

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Weekend Makes

I'm guessing you noticed from my post on Cameron's favorite fall looks, but my lady likes herself the color gold. Metallic will do, but gold is her fave. So when we found ourselves with the need to buy a pair of gym shoes for school (had to be athletic and had to be velcro), Cam requested gold. I looked high and low, but couldn't find a pair under $150. And even I have my limits (really, I do). And while I'm on board with Cam's fashionable intentions and support her expressing herself how she feels comfortable, at the end of the day, she needs to be able to do what she needs to be able to do at school. I also just can't believe she's old enough to be in kindergarten ... gah!!! Anyway, she finally agreed to a leopard pair with gold accents -- we'll see how they hold up, I have my suspicions. But, in the meantime, I've rounded up some golden weekend makes for my favorite gal. Stay gold, Ponyboy.

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Weekend Makes

As I try to ease the kids back into a school mindset, I've been thinking of fun ways to get them re-focused. They already love science experiments, so why wouldn't they love edible science!? Test out some of these tasty projects and see what you think.

1 / lunar phases with oreos! 2 / make whipped cream or butter 3 / ice cream in a baggie -- tastes better than it looks! 4 / DIY rock candy (+ free printable!) 5 / edible water beads

DIY Glitter Bouncy Balls!

Holy cow! Warm weather hit D.C. yesterday and it was GLORIOUS!!! I am still skeptical it will stick, however, which is why you should hightail it over to Little Hip Squeaks blog today to catch our DIY Glitter Bouncy Balls. If everyone is going to be bouncing off the walls, it might as well be fun.

KID Museum at Davis Library

This past weekend marked the grand opening of the new KID Museum in Bethesda, an interactive "museum" for elementary and middle school-aged children. The event was well run, with stations clearly identified and lots of people to help direct various projects. But I was in a super cranky mood all weekend (exacerbated by the fact that I was parenting solo and a marathon reading of Gone Girl, which was both impossible to put down and very, very disturbing) and I was just not into being around crowds.

Spooky Science: DIY Fake Blood

Can you believe Halloween is almost here?! My kiddos are so excited that they've been asking for spooky activity upon spooky activity this week. You might recall that our entire family dressed up as vampires last year for the holiday and Kane was insistent on having realistic full make-up, including a constant reapplication of fake blood dripping from his fangs. It tasted disgusting, but he really wanted to go for the full effect. So I thought it would be fun to use one of his afternoons off this week (parent-teacher conferences!) to try our hand at a little gross and spooky science: DIY fake blood.

Keep It Local: Maryland Science Center

One of the best things about living in D.C. is all the free access to wonderful museums. It doesn't matter if we pop in for 20 minutes and one of us loses it, forcing everyone to leave. It was $free.99. Mom dislikes the pressure visiting paid museums puts on all of us. So she was a little nervous about driving all the way up to Baltimore to visit the Maryland Science Center. She showed us some of the exhibits online and made sure that we thought we'd like it ("cause we're not leaving once we're in," may have been tossed our way). Then she remembered that we joined the Franklin Institute last year and got reciprocal admission to the Science Center. Phew.

Turns out she had nothing to worry about, because we stayed at the Science Center for almost 6 hours. 6 HOURS. And even then we didn't want to leave.

We did almost everything, but our top hits included:
- the Kids Room (for kids 0 - 8) -- featuring a large waterplay area, an underwater play scene, a giant pinscreen and a whole slate of things to tinker with;

- the Dinosaur Mysteries Exhibit -- displaying over a dozen full size dinos and a working field lab and dig pits; and

- Newton's Alley -- providing hands-on demonstrations of Sir Isaac's principles.

The best thing, about all of the exhibits really, was that each of them offered lots of hands-on opportunities to explore and discover. We know this isn't technically a "kids museum," but it sure was designed with kids in mind. There were also ongoing demonstrations throughout the day and that helped break up some of the monotony that can develop from going to exhibit after exhibit (although that wasn't really a problem here in the first place).

Mom finally dragged us out around 3:30 -- worried that we'd hit traffic if we waited much longer. Then Cam decided she wanted to geocache and we set out looking for a supposed "easy find" (if there is one thing you can suck mom into doing, it's geocaching). We didn't find the cache, but we did find the carousel next door and then we just HAD to have a ride on that.

We wish it was just a bit closer, but the Science Center has still moved to the top of our favorite local museums list -- we can't wait to go back for the new Mummies of the World exhibit, opening at the end of September!

You can check out the Maryland Science Center's hours right here. Don't forget to look at all of the great programming they have as well -- we missed "Gizmos, Gadgets, and Gears: A DIY Summer" during our visit because we didn't check the schedule ahead of time. It's there only until Labor Day so go while you can!