A Hop, Skip and Jump

Part of our number lines.

Hayden is super into numbers and being a mathematician.   We are always talking about numbers and which ones are bigger and smaller.    Most recently he's wanted to practicing skip counting.   10's and 100's are some of his favorites.     And because my super active boy needs to be moving moving moving, we turned our back patio into giant number lines and practiced skip counting by racing around.

Jumping by 10's

Racing the 100's line.

Hayden was able to do most of the 10's number line verbally.  He picked the direction and location of each line.    When it came time to draw the 100's we had an awesome conversation about why the numbers needed to be further apart.   Far from the traditional straight number line of my classrooms, our 100's line will leave you a bit dizzy.

We had a ton of fun jumping, running, spinning and racing around the patio while shouting out the numbers on our line.   And at the end of it all, Hayden looks at me and says, "I love math!  I'm an excellent mathematician."   It makes my heart happy to see him loving to learn so much.

Lessons Learned from Soap Flake Slime (and more fun)!

Our soap flake slime sat around for a few days with it's lid on stewing away.   Then one particularly beautiful afternoon, the kind too nice to stay inside, we ventured out to the yard to see how the slimed turned out.    Lots of lessons learned on this afternoon, in addition to some fun:

Lesson 1:   The slime really did almost solidify.   The bubbly froth was no longer there, though it could be whipped back up if needed.   What was left was a true slime that just oozed in and out of everything that was played with it.    The kids and I had a ball trying to capture it into various containers and "build" things with it.

 My favorite treat of the afternoon was the slimy popsicle I was served up!

Lesson 2:  My dog likes the taste of soap flake slime.    As the kids flung it around the yard, she would rush to it to try and lick it up.    As I had visions of seeing the slime leaving my dog at a later date, I ran around chasing the flung slime too with a hose hoping to dissolve it away before the dog could get to it.  Yes, the mental picture in your head is probably hilariously close to the reality that was.

Lesson 3:  There is a reason the recipe recommended boiling water to dissolve the soap flakes.   As I was attempting to dissolve the soap slime in my yard, I quickly discovered that it took quite a lot of water and the most direct sprayer on my hose nozzle to actually get the slime to break apart and begin to dissolve.   I ended up pouring most of the bucket into my front yard where it was safe from our dog with the hopes that it would dissolve through lawn watering and due.   (It did not.  I ended up hosing it down pretty good a couple days later).    My words of advice for those of you sliming after me; go with the directions from the website Slime Recipe and don't take your slime outside.  Instead use it in small portions in your laundry.

Lesson 4:   Sadly slime will not be returning to our house.    After Day 1, Alice developed a rash on her back.   No other symptoms, and it really didn't seem to bother her.   Further investigation lead us to thinking it was mild hives.    After Part 2, she showed up with the same rash confirming my theory that she was allergic to the soap flakes.  BUMMER!   Turns out she has some of the same soap sensitivities her Momma had as a kiddo too.    So the soap flakes have moved onto our cousin's house where we hope they will have as much fun as we did.

I would highly recommend this activity as a great warm weather sensory play!  My kids loved it and it was so much fun watching them explore something new.

Soap Flake Slime

About 2 months ago a friend posted a really cool recipe to make soap flake slime.   I thought the kids would love it and promptly added it to our shopping list.    And for 2 months I looked for soap flakes in every store I went to.   Wouldn't you know it, in our convenience packed world soap flakes are a dying thing; replaced by pods and such.   I found them on Amazon but they were crazy expensive.    But just when I'd given up the search, another errand took us to Walmart.   And after a happenstance walk down the soap aisle just in case, we found them!

the elusive soap flakes

Well, you'd better believe we made soap flake slime as soon as we got home.   It's pretty easy.   Dissolve soap flakes into part boiling water with 1:3 ration. (Soap Flake Slime Recipe)    Beat with electric beaters until foamy on top and start to thicken.   I added a few extra flakes along the way to make it even slimier.   This kids had a ball watching the bubbles form little mountains.

After laying out all of my towels that needed to be washed and gathering any and all kitchen implements and measuring cups that looked like they could aide in the fun, I let the kids loose on the slime and watched them all smiles, messes and full of creativity over what to do with this new experience.

Exploring the Slime

It was everywhere!   But how cute is this photo!

As a bonus for Mommy, by using all of my towels that needed washing anyway, clean up for this activity was a breeze.    Soap kids got a middle of the day bath where they become the source of the bubbles, extending the fun as they watched bubbles form all around them.    While they had lunch and wound down for afternoon naps/chill out time, I mopped up all the soapy puddles with my towels, tossed them directly into the washing machine and crossed my days load of laundry off the list. 

 

And if you want the fun to continue for another day, simply put a lid on your soap flakes and leave them over night.   The directions I followed indicated that this would somewhat solidify the mixture and turn it into a more solid slimy mass.    And so we commenced phase 2 of our science experiment!