It is not quite spring, but we all wish it was Right?  So just in case you are wondering what to do with your garden or if you do not have one how to get your toddlers and preschoolers to understand gardening with no soil around… I present you a Potato.

All you have to do is place it in a glass container, preferably helped up by some toothpicks.  Unless you have other contraptions.

Well technically it does not even need to be glass.  Anything you have that can hold water, recyclable or not will do.

one week

two weeks

three weeks

or more.  In all reality all these were placed in water at the same time, meaning 5 weeks ago.  I am not sure what made some grow faster then others.  I think our indoor cat had something to do with it, but that is another story after all.

Before putting them in a soil we will have a little discussion about potatoes, roots and stems.  What do  you think?

My tween came home with a Science Project.  Something about dropping an egg from 20 feet (6 meters) without breaking it.  So we thought about it, well to be honest she thought and what else to spark childs imagination then balloons and flying.  We have all seen UP, right?

So we took some balloons, packaging and string

Since it seems that we do not have any paper or other packaging at home we used felt and cheese cloth.  I am sure that the cheese cloth is what made all the difference.

We tied it up in a one neat package

and then we weighed it.

Little Science:

Helium lifts 1 gram per liter.  On average 1 baloon contains 14 liters of helium (being 15 cm round).

Meaning:  about 30 grams is 1 oz,  the package weighted 1 lbs (12 oz)… so 30 x 12 = 360 grams or liters needed.

360 needed/ 14 in each balloon= 25.71 balloons.  My daughter wanted to make them float so 25 would be perfect

Except we didn’t have any helium balloons, only lung air ones, hardly considered hot air.

Dropping it off 10 ft at home did not break it.

Just to be certain it will not happen she tied 7 to the top and 2 on the bottom as buffers.  Then placed the experiment in her warm 70 deg room for few days.  Finally it arrived at school, where it has been waiting to be tested for over a week.  The balloons have deflated, and I sure hope the teacher decides to skip it this time since I would not want to be around when that month old egg breaks the fall.

We surely did learn some science though.

Sometimes you have those days when you run out of fun ideas.  When you no longer have the energy to run to the store for more crayons, coloring pages, paint or whatever else you may need for the next craft.  Whatever you need must be found in your cupboards right now.

Two stirring spoons and a little plastic strawberry

Or a ball was enough to provide the kids with an hour of entertainment

Two teams

each defending their own imaginary goal

and trying to score on one another

and when the fun of the game wore off

they moved it to the dining room table

and when that became too tiring

We were left with the old chase around the house without dropping the ball game.  Ready, Set, Go !!!

Yes here is your host, all ready to teach you a cooking technique better known as breading.

She does not start of this messy and as they say you have to break some eggs to make an omelet.  In this case you will have sprinkle some flour all over the kitchen floor to teach your preschooler to cook.  We have to be flexible right.

What’s that noise outside we are trying to do a cooking show here

Let’s get going ok?

Set up a breading station allowing your kids to put the shrimp in starch, then in egg mixture and later in panko breadcrumb mixture.  What we are making is Bang Bang Shrimp or Chicken for kids, or you can just opt for Parmesan Chicken for kids.

Make sure you teach your kids all the fun names and textures they are playing with.  Of course regular flour would be fine but cornstarch has specific texture that will make it even more fun and messy for the kids.

Be prepared that they will want to try everything they cook, even though they may not like it.  Perfect way to teach your kiddos not to like foods politely.

There was a lot of tasting going on.  Or maybe just licking her fingers.

Either way she made a total mess, and a great dinner both of which were highly enjoyed by her twin brother.

Who even though did not fully participate

Did get a chance to play with corn starch and its textural effects

We did try to make up a song but decided to leave it instead to the wonderful kids music on Kiboomu.

Just to get kids in a Shrimp mood we read:

A silly story about Giovanni and how he started his Scampi truck filled with shrimp all because of an unlikely friendship with one.  You can see some pages and print few coloring pages here on Amazon.