Afternoon Activity: Baking Soda and Vinegar Play

With the New Year comes new segments for my blog! If you read several of my posts from my 14-Day Challenge, you will see that Rose and I have a couple of hours in the afternoon in which we stare at one another in boredom. My remedy was to research fun learning activities for her and I to do together during those long afternoon hours before Dad came home. And, of course, I find myself needing to share these fun activities with you guys. So here’s the first one!

As the snow falls and temperatures drop, I have found the need to be creative in finding fun indoor activities that (most importantly) hold Rose’s attention while being both fun and educational. This one is all three of those things. Rose loved it. And best of all, you already have all the supplies in your kitchen

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All you need is vinegar, baking soda, and some type of food coloring. I prefer using Sargent Art’s WaterColor Magic instead of regular food coloring, as it is washable and doesn’t stain fabric. I highly recommend this product. We use it for almost all of our crafting and activities. Go to Amazon right now and buy it so you can have it in the future!

Activity:
Simply pour some baking soda into a plastic dish for little one to explore. Let them play with the powder by itself while describing its texture, color, and even taste.

While the little one is playing with the baking soda, pour some vinegar into two (or more) small containers. Then add your coloring. Finally take the dropper and slowly squeeze the liquid onto the baking soda. If you do not own a dropper, try using a straw or a baby medicine syringe.

Watch your little ones face as the chemical reaction occurs and bubbles form. Describe the colors, bubbles, and sounds as they happen. At the beginning Rose didn’t understand how the dropper worked, but with time we worked together and she finally figured how to squeeze the dropper’s bulb to spray the vinegar everywhere.

From beginning to end, this activity held Rose’s attention for over 30 minutes! That’s unheard of with a 15-month-old. After we added all the vinegar to the baking soda and the mixture had turned into a purple sludge, Rose had even more fun playing with the goopy slop. ProTip: have some baby shampoo and a towel on hand so you can throw little one in the sink afterward to be cleaned.

Conclusion:

Pros:

• No special material needed. Uses household staples for ingredients.
• Introduce basic science terms (reactions, mixture, chemicals)
• Opportunity to talk about colors and sounds.
• Work on fine motor skills by learning to squeeze dropper
• Holds little one’s attentions for a long time

Cons:

• Creates a giant mess
• Post-bath is a necessity
• Little one may become frustrated if they cannot figure out dropper

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

To me, the pros heavily outweigh the cons for this activity. Yes, clean up took a while; but, the learning opportunity and Rose’s giggles were so great that the mess is bearable.

Other Variations:

• Try this activity at a play date. Buy a bunch of baking soda and vinegar and divvy it up between the kids and moms and watch the little ones enjoy and learn together.
• Put baking soda in multiple smaller containers. Then add different amounts of vinegar to each. If you child is older, talk about the differences in the reactions. (Adding a lot of vinegar to a good size of baking soda is fun even for moms!)