Monday, Science FUN Day—Growing Trees!

Well, m’peeps.

I’m so, dang happy to report that we had such a normal and productive and busy summer day, ‘round our casa. 

School work, snuggling and movie watching, doodling, pool time, video games, family meals, and...of course, a li’l bit o’ science!

Today’s experiment was speedy to set up, and then fun to watch over the course of about six hours:

I picked these up (one for each kiddo) at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago, since they were only a couple of dollars and something coolio I could pull out if I had no other experiment on our docket, and I’m really glad I did. 

They were easy breezy, but a lengthened bit of fun, due to the amount of time it took them to “bloom.”

Only downside is that they came with zero description regarding the actual science involved.

So I just had to assume that the provided liquid we poured at the base of the tree produced some sort of fast-acting, chemical, crystalline reaction. Super technical mumbo jumbo, right? ;) But it didn’t matter, because the kiddos dug them.

We just had to put together our paper trees—that had some red coloring at the ends of the branches so the blooms would turn red—and then pour the chemical solution in the tray.

Then watch.

And check in every hour or so.













Super fun.

And for some reason, Chica’s bloomed bigger than Chicklet’s or Little Man’s, and I have no idea why. Perhaps something we could hypothesize for another time.

Aaaaand...since I never managed to post last week’s science fun, you get two for the price of one with this post tonight:

I also picked this kit up a couple of weeks ago, and we barely scratched the surface by utilizing it for just one experiment that day. So, hopefully, there will be lots more to come, since it boasts over 20 possibilities.

Basically, it’s this little tubing system that leads to a vacuum chamber that you can pump the air out of. And it’s really fun to see the effects of that in action.



Because we lurv a giant marshmallow—in life and in science—we decided to make it our guinea pig.



And watched as it got bigger and bigger and bigger, as we removed more and more air.



And then when it was about to fill up the entire chamber, we let the air back in, and watched the marshmallow deflate.

Kinda what a postpartum tummy can look like at times. Amiright, ladies?? ;)

So there you have it.

Science fun.

Times two.

I can’t believe it, but we probably have only a handful of Monday, Science FUN Days left, as we’re practically smack dab in the middle of July with an upcoming road trip to see family that might disrupt things a bit. Crazy, right??

But we’ve really enjoyed this made up Monday activity, and I’m happy to have a few more to tackle before the bulk of the summer closes out.

Happy Monday, peeps!

Over and out.