Kitchen Lava Lamps

I think you know my my absence this summer on this blog, that I have 3 kids filling my days. Baby DIVA who is a fireball of energy at 18 months, and two of my friends children Sassy Gal who is 11 and Video Dude who is 7. We have been doing all kinds of really fun things so far this summer and now that I have a moment alone, on the toilet no less member that post LOL, I want to share some of it with you. The kids have really enjoyed these activities and your might too.

We made our very own Lave Lamps with ingredients right in my kitchen. You probably have these supplies on hand too!

Glass jar

vegetable oil

water (umm the sink)

food coloring

airborne tablets (can use alka seltzer and/or salt as well)

I had the kids pour the vegetable oil into the glass jar until it was about half full. We then filled the jar the rest of the way with water. The kids were allowed to choose which color food coloring they wanted, and it just so happened that both big kids choose blue, twinkie lava lamps! So i added in about 10-12 drops, YES I did this step, didn't trust Sassy Gal and Video dude to not get blue food coloring all over the place. At this point Video Dude took notice that the water and the oil were separating and layering in the jar, the food coloring sank in droplets to the bottom of the jar too. We took a moment to kind of free think and talk about this novelty. I was pleasantly surprised to find such fabulous conversations that transpired between Sassy Gal, Video Dude and myself with only minor probing on my part. They really seemed to get involved in the "Science" aspect of this Lava Lamp building.

Adding the food coloring


I even got a "thumbs up" for this project!

So finally the magic came. I gave each kid a 1/2 of an airborne tablet and told them to plop in the jar. They did and Holy Toledo you should have heard the shrieks of excitement as they began to watch their Lava Lamps come alive.

Magic Happening as the Airborne pops in

In true kiddo fashion, after the activity was done we wanted to SHAKE the jar up to see what happened. So I let them. And they loved it too. I did however have to draw the line when asked if we could see what happened when we poured soda in the jar! HA! And I a msure their parents were equally pleased when the kids brought home jars of colored cooking oil. Sorry folks!!