Engaging kids into something constructive and fun is a task altogether, specially when they are home all through. These easy and fun activities with kids are helping us survive our days at home. I am sure they will do yours as well!

Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcano

This classic science experiment helps kids learn about chemical reactions and what happens when a volcano erupts. It gives an idea of what an actual volcano looks like and also demonstrates the chemical reaction between an acid and a base.

Materials required:
for making volcano cone
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup water
2 tbs oil

for lava making
Vinegar
2 tbs Baking soda
Food coloring
Dishwashing detergent
Flat pan
Empty bottle

Instructions:

• Start by making a volcano cone by mixing flour, salt, cooking oil and water.
• When you get a firm and smooth dough, make the cone in a flat pan by molding the dough around a bottle to form a volcano shape. Be sure not to cover the hole of the bottle or drop dough inside it.
• Fill the bottle most of the way full with vinegar and a bit of food coloring.
• Add 6 drops of detergent to the contents of the bottle. The detergent helps trap bubbles produced by the chemical reaction so you get better lava.
• Add baking soda to the liquid in the bottle.

….and then watch out, time for eruption!

What is happening?
The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base while the vinegar (acetic acid) is an acid. When they react together, carbon-dioxide gas is produced which creates all the fizzing as it escapes the solution. The dishwashing detergent helps hold the bubbles.

Explore the Phases of Moon

Discover the phases of moon through an easy project model.

Materials required:
Cardboard
Paints/color markers
Circular moulds or lids
Scissors

Instructions:

• Take a cardboard and paint it with the colors of the galaxy.
• Take a circular lid and cut 8 pieces of moon.
• Paint or color different shapes of the moon as shown in the picture and stick them on the cardboard.
• Take another lid (slightly bigger than the previous) and cut a circular piece of cardboard, and stick it in the centre (color or paint it as Earth).
• Now label these and you are done.

Make an LED card

This simple light up cards is a great way for kids to get experience of creating a circuit. The supplies used in this project are inexpensive. I managed to get all of it at home itself.

Materials required:
Card stock
1/4″ copper tape or copper wire
LEDs (2 or 3 per card)
Coin cell Battery
Tape
Markers and items to decorate your card

Instructions:

• Decorate the front of your card.
• Inside the card, sketch the circuit, deciding the positioning of the battery. Draw two parallel lines for the copper tape/wire starting at the LED locations – one should end under the battery and the other should be about 3/4″ to one side of the battery.

• Cut 2 lengths of copper tape/wire to match your sketch and apply to your card. Secure the battery with a tape. Make sure the bottom of the battery makes contact with the copper tape/wire.
• Select LEDs for your card. Bend the legs flat and connect it with the copper tape/wire. Use a small scrap of copper tape/wire on or under the battery to complete the circuit. Check if your LED lights up. LEDs have a polarity, so if it does not light up, spin the LED 180 degrees so the legs are now touching the opposite pieces of copper tape/wire.

Secure your LED’s with the tape.

We need a switch to complete the circuit. The simplest version is a pressure switch, so fold the right corner of the card. Whenever it presses the battery, the card lights up

Rock Cycle Experiment with Crayons

Study a series of processes that create and transform the types of rocks in Earth’s crust using crayons.

Materials required:
Crayons 3-4
Aluminum foil
Plastic knife
Bowl
3 cups water
Parchment paper
Art paper
Marker
Glue

Instructions:

• Take an art paper or cardboard to make a diagram of rock cycle. You can be as crafty as possible. Even better, if more of cutting and pasting is done so that it interestingly involves the kids.
• Melt few crayons on a parchment paper in oven to get magma. When this magma cools, igneous rock is formed.

• Now erode the igneous rock with a knife to get sediments.

• Take another piece of aluminum foil; put the sediments into it and compress it until it is compacted to form the sedimentary rock.

• Make a boat of aluminum foil. Take some water in a bowl and microwave it for around 4 minutes.
• Put the sedimentary rock in the boat and place it in the heated water to show the effects of heat and pressure.  Soon we see traces of molten matter on the foil.

• Let this cool and carefully take it out. The structure so formed is a metamorphic rock.

• You can again completely melt any of the rocks to form magma.
• Stick these pieces of rocks on your rock cycle diagram.

Make a Da Vinci bridge

Da Vinci bridge is an interesting self supporting structure that can help kiddos learn the science behind how designing of structure works on their performance. You can also take up challenges to see whose bridge can carry the maximum weight. Ours could carry around 4 kgs and above.

Materials required:
9 Pencils
27 strings or rubber bands

Instructions:

• Begin with keeping tying three strings on each pencil; one at the centre and the other at the end.

• Place two pencils vertically and two horizontally above it so that they are secured by the strings on both the ends.

• Now keep one more pencil in the centre on either side of the strings underneath.

• Now slowly raise either of the vertical pencil and fit in two pencils like this.

• Do the same thing on the remaining side and your bridge is ready.

• Now carefully add weight to the bridge and see its capacity.

Make Invisible Ink

Making invisible ink is a lot of fun, you can share secret messages and reveal in an interesting way. All you need is some basic household objects and the hidden power of lemon juice.

Materials needed:
Half a lemon
Bowl
Paint brush
White paper
Lighter/Candle

Instructions:

• Squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl.
• Dip the paint brush into it and write a message onto the white paper.
• Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible.
• When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by holding it close to the candle or the lighter.

What’s happening?
Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidizes and turns brown when heated. Other substances which work in the same way include orange juice, honey, milk, onion juice, vinegar and wine. Invisible ink can also be made using chemical reactions or by viewing certain liquids under ultraviolet (UV) light.

It always feel happy to see our children developing into individuals with creative thinking, unique ideas and ability to assertively express what they think.

But what substance these kids are made of? How and they are able to develop themselves with the ideas they have? How they are so clear in expressing themselves? And what makes them so assertive and unique about their ways and actions?

Well! They might inherit a great deal from their genes, of course we can’t do much about it. But, what we can actually do about is favorably create the surroundings and the atmosphere they grow in.

As parents, we play a tremendous role in making them become what they actually do. Well, the factors that decide on the thinking and mind-set they’r going to grow with are all around us. Just that we need to pay a little attention to smaller details relating to them.

Curiosity in kids is really good

Curiosity is something kids are naturally blessed with, more or less. If you are a parent (or even if you are not) to young children, I am sure you will be totally able to relate with such constant bombardment of questions that they can come up with. Well, the good news is that curiosity in kids makes them more intelligent, confident and outgoing. It is a natural phenomenon which lets them learn and grow. They explore a range of opportunities and possibilities much required for the growth of their brain and personality on the whole.

Positive and encouraging responses nurture it, while excessive control and regulations kill it. For this, it is extremely important that we not only answer their queries, but also encourage them with elements that spark curiosity by giving them hypothetical situations and asking open ended questions.

It’s great if kids are encouraged to make their choices

We all want our children to grow as assertive, strong and opiniated adults but at the same time we want our children to be passive, pliable and obedient as kids. The two hardly go hand in hand. The ability to give their opinions comes from their very childhood. When they are making choice of their clothes no matter how wrongly paired those are, they are expressing themselves. Allow them to exhibit their own personalities. When they refuse to get ready on time, they are learning the consequences from their mistakes. Let them learn from their inactions.

Such allowances can be messy and overwhelming. After all, we can’t allow our kids to rule the lives. But that is what parenting is all about. Guidance, gentle explanations and coaching go a long way in regulating them to the way they respond. How successful we are going to be in the same depends on how well we try to connect with them.

Talking back and disagreements are good sometimes

Well, this may sound simple but it’s really not cool when that actually happens. Imagine you asking your kid to do his homework and he says why should I? Actually it’s not easy to listen to their back talks when what we are saying is right and is for their good. We as parents want to have the last word on whatever it is.

But if we try to understand talking back is a huge part of the formation of their personality. They want to make their choices. They are not ready to accept what is dished out to them. Yelling, arguing back or supressing through powerful means is just of no help. When they disagree with us, they are displaying a strong mindset. The best way is to diverge them to a different way to reach a solution.

Allowances for being imperfect are okay

As parents we have a tendency to get our child draw, colour or write perfect. Well, in reality the expectation should be to do well rather than be perfect. Over guiding children to colour with all the colours in boundaries or write spellings without mistakes restricts their thinking. Those little imperfections help them discover creative and their own approach to doing a particular thing. It’s very important that we guide them to the extent and in a way that doesn’t hamper their creativity

The power of appreciation can never be underestimated

As adults, we all like to be appreciated and so goes for out kids. It’s one of the greatest ways of enforcing positive behavior.

Praising or appreciating here doesn’t mean praising them for giving the best result or for some accomplishment or for some innate trait they have like their smartness, intelligence or talent. It’s got to get wider with praising for their efforts, gestures, and strategies. It’s more about trying and not getting distressed even if they are not the best. It’s more about getting better even if they do well. It’s more about attempting something even though they were not confident about it. It’s more about trying hard to reach the goal they decide for themselves.

So let’s appreciate for listening, appreciate for understanding, appreciate for being responsible, and appreciate for being thoughtful!

It’s a great practice to communicate by narrating stories

How often we notice that kids pay special attention if we tell some present or past incidence or narration or practices about our own selves or someone they know . This means, it can be a great way to diverge their thought process to meaningful inferences and conclusions through stories. That can be anything from being true or concocted as far as they are going to leave some good impression on our children.

Even kids can be made to narrate through simple practices; narrating about a particular place they went to, drawing an event or function they attended, correlating an object with something using their own thoughts and ideas or anything.

If we try to understand it, parenting is more about growing ourselves in raising children than anything else and they are completely a reflection of how well we are able to bring it in our practice.