Kid's Activity: Bubbles, Bubbles, More Bubbles

by Melissa Jaramillo and Julie Snyder

Bubbles are magic. They float, change colors, hook together and pop. Children seem to never be bored with them:

• See all the circles in the air and rush around to pop them
• Bubbles land on their faces, toes, and noses, and pop they go
• Make a telescope using bubbles for lenses
• Use bubbles as the theme of an art project
• Experiment with bubbles of different shapes
• Start a bubble story

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Let's have some fun learning (while playing)!

The bubbles in the air aren't the only thing to disappear -- the liquid in the bottle disappears quickly, too. Don't worry. Making your own solution is easy, fun and educational!

Bubble Recipes

Mixture 1 -- A BIG Batch
  1 gallon water
  16 oz. bottle of dishwashing liquid
  1 oz. bottle of glycerine
Stir gently to combine.

Mixture 2 -- Ooooh Bubbles
  8 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid
  1 quart of water
  1-2 tablespoons of glycerin or unflavored gelatin
  Drops of food coloring (optional)
Stir gently to combine.

Mixture 3 -- Super Solution
Part A:
  1 tablespoon linseed or flaxseed
  1 cup water
Combine and boil until the solution develops a slight amber or yellow tint (about 5 minutes). Cool, strain seeds out and dilute liquid to a quart.

Part B:
  1 quart linseed/flaxseed solution
  1/4 cup dishwashing liquid
Stir gently to combine.

Mixture 4 -- Giant Bubble Solution
  6 cups of water
  two cups of dishwashing liquid
  3/4 cups of corn syrup
Stir gently to combine.

Mixing the ingredients is a fairly simple task and a great learning opportunity! What happens if the solution has too much water? (The bubbles burst before leaving the wand and splatter in a child's face!) How about too little water? (They sink right to the shoes and pop.)

Tips
· To avoid irritating sensitive toddler skin, use a fragrance free, color free detergent.
· It's best to add the water first, then the detergent and gently stir. If the order is reversed, the result can be a lovely bowl of foamy bubble bath. Lovely, but not good for blowing bubbles right away.

Wands, Blowers, Machines

When we picture a bubble wand, we generally see a little plastic stick with a circle at the end. So many more items make great wands though. Gather a few household objects and turn your child's creativity loose! They'll fashion bubble wands out of objects such as straws, pipe cleaners, strawberry baskets, six-pack plastics, paper towel rolls, cone coffee filters, coat hangers, twine and anything else that seems usable at the time.

Need a couple ideas to get you started?

• Dip a plastic 6-pack holder into a tray of bubble solution and slowly spin. Hundreds of bubbles will spiral off!
• You can make small wands from pipe cleaners. They can be made into stars, squares, triangles. Remember though, no matter the shape of the wand, the bubble will be round.
• Fold a piece of twine in half, dip into the bubble solution, pull taut and blow gently up and down the twine.
• Need a wand for huge bubbles. Start with a clothes hanger.

Now that you have bubble solution and a collection of wand, have your own bubble festival!

Puzzles for the Curious

Puzzle 1: Which will make the largest bubbles -- a conical coffee filter or a straw? Why?

Puzzle 2: What are some modification that would improve the performance of a clothes hanger wand?

Julie Snyder is a mom of six, interested in kids, pregnancy, birth, people and lives in the outlying Seattle area. Melissa Jaramillo is mom to many. She's passionate about building, encouraging, and strengthening families on this adventure known as parenthood!

Copyright © Melissa Jaramillo and Julie Snyder. Permission to republish granted to Pregnancy.org, LLC.