light and sunshine

Just a few pics from the past few days of play and painting pumpkins!  We also did an experiment with water beads and tonic water! ;)

The great tonic water and water beads experiment

We soaked water beads in water for a day, as usual. Then we drained them and filled the carafe  with tonic water. The water beads soaked in the tonic water for two days. After that we drained the water beads again. What we observed was that the water beads shrunk down to a significantly smaller size, and became filled with tiny bubbles.  Then we refilled the carafe with water to see if they would grow again. We waited two days, again. After two days we noticed that the water beads did NOT grow again. They stayed exactly as they were after being in the tonic water for two days. So we drained the water and decided to examine them more closely!! During the course of the week, we checked the water beads out in the black light as well as sunlight and indoor lighting. Tonight we put them under the black light and noticed how very brightly they glowed!!  The tonic water really made these pink water beads look awesome under the black light!! We also noticed that they are VERY SQUEAKY feeling, it is so strange!! You seriously must try this!! They also DO NOT break as easily as a water bead soaked in water!!  Oh and they bounce even higher than a water bead soaked in water!!

This was a really fun science experiment!! I know we will try this one again, maybe we will change up the variables a bit!! Let us know if you try it too!!!!

water beads with tonic water

see all of the bubbles!!!!

They look so awesome right up by the black lights!!

Graham wanted to read by the owl lights

one of the light sets that Graham and Parker chose for their room, they are so pretty
that I am planning to keep them up year round!

a seasonal light set that Graham and Parker chose!

another seasonal light set that Graham, and Parker chose.

some of their lights.....just one part of the room

plasma ball

another child led sensory bin!

You can see our last child led sensory bin HERE!

This sensory bin was completely child led again. I had a container of dried beans out and was getting ready to put a lid on the container. Near to this container was a bag full of empty spice  jars. I had the empty spice jars and tea bags out to get ready to put them into their wooden toy kitchen. I was getting an activity ready for Graham and Parker in the same room, and they decided to play with the dried beans, the tea bags and the empty spice bottles.tea bags, they had a great time!!  They cut open the tear bags, dumped them into the container of dried beans and into the empty spice jars, put beans into the empty spice jars, added some toys to it all. They really enjoyed the scents! The point of me having the spice jars out there to be placed in the toy kitchen, was to be able to have nice scents while playing with their in the toy kitchen. So when they pretend to make food and put some spice into the food, they will smell the spice!! The spice jars still strongly hold the scents of the spices that used to be in them!

yah.. this is pretty random.  ALF in a pink Barbie jeep with a floppy sun hat.  ;)

penguins 

animals on the light table with light table acorns and pumpkins. They are in groups, with food.  hehe

Outdoor fun!!

This is a typical day of outdoor play, they had a friend over to play, did some painting, some science experiments, some sudsy, bubbly water play and swimming. I added some acrylic mirrors into the water and art play areas. We also painted pumpkins! We painted pumpkins last year too! You can see last that post from last year, HERE!

Starting off with vinegar and baking soda.......

They use this umbrella stroller for play, Parker likes to strap himself into it. Then he gets me to push him around.

Garland, pretending to row a boat!

Garland was pretending to row a boat