My oldest and I love to read books before bed. Since both little brothers are asleep it is our quiet time together. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen every night anymore but we treasure the nights that we get. One of my son’s favorite story characters is Little Critter by Mercer Mayer. We have over 50 of these books. I bough many from Ebay for less than a dollar each. We have gotten lots of good use out of them. So, what I am getting to, is that one night after reading the Little Critter book What A Bad Dream, my son asked if we could make potions too. I hesitated and then said sure we will tomorrow but we must go to bed now. Now I had to come up with a plan to make his request happen. We had never made “potions” and I thought this would be a perfect activity for us the next day.
Magic Potions ~ Book Inspired Activity
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What a Bad Dream (A Golden Look-Look Book)
Thankfully daddy was off the following day and he was able to jump in and help make potions. I think he was happy to be off and get to play too. He often misses out on all our fun over here. I brainstormed a little the night before and knew it was time to put the frozen vinegar to use in the freezer (I wont tell you how long it has been in there waiting to be used) but other than that I wasn’t sure what we would do. The next day I just started grabbing things as I went and here is what we came up with for making magic potions.
I love gathering everything and setting it out before I have the boys start an activity. This doesn’t always happen but when I can I prefer to do that. We just recently moved this table out to the yard and it was perfect for our mixing station.
The boys couldn’t wait to get started making their very own magic potions. Even though Little Critter drank his I had to tell my oldest that today we would not be tasting these fun potions. I love that little brother is older this summer and able to get in on almost all the same activities big brother gets to do. I love seeing his new found joy in this sensory exploration as we play. Big brother is a pro at sensory play by now and always enjoys it!
What we used:
A little bit of everything. Baking soda, cornstarch, mens shampoo and conditioner( this gave our potions a nice clean scent), frozen vinegar, old parsley flakes from the pantry, tea bags, glitter, food coloring, and water. We had bowls, spoons, measuring cups, funnels, measuring spoons, medicine droppers, cups, and our homemade potion bottles.
What we did:
I poured baking soda in the bottom of the mixing bowls and then let them add the frozen vinegar. I added a few drops of food coloring and so did they. We had the cornstarch in 2 old peanut butter jars for them to add as they wanted. Now they just started creating on their own. Sprinkling this and pouring that. Squeezing in shampoo and conditioner. They were having tons of fun exploring all of these sensory materials they had in front of them. Daddy and I had fun playing with them too. This fun sensory activity turned into family time too. Once they had the perfect potion they added them to the potion bottles. Then we moved on to more fun washing everything off with the hose!
We had a lot of fun making our magic potions. The kids worked on their motor skills while squeezing and pouring. They got to explore their sense of touch, sight, and smell. We had a little science fun seeing how all the materials reacted or did not react with each other. Their was a lot of imagination and creativity going on over here too. This was just an overall playful learning activity for us. What to mix up next?
As always we hope you and your kids may have a little fun with this too.
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What fun! It looks like your family had a blast making these.
Great way to extend your son’s favorite books! Bravo!
My kids love potion making. Looks like yours do too! I love your home made potions bottles.
I’ve never thought of using frozen vinegar – brilliant. My son liked using hair conditioner too (in fact his constant personal potions experiments in the bathroom gave me the idea!). My daughter’s potions didn’t smell so good when she left them to sit for a week… but it was interesting to see how dried yeast speeds up the mould process! 😀
Ah my kids are crazy for making potions… I love the idea of labeling the bottles! My lot will love that!
My boys would enjoy this too. I try to follow the advice, “Say yes to everything you can say yes to, so that when you say no you’re children will know there’s a reason.” You said yes to an unexpected request that would have been easy to blow off and as a result your whole family had a great time. That’s neat! Pinning to my outdoor play board.
MaryAnn @playeatgrow.com
What a fun activity!! So creative and so much you can do with it. Thank you for sharing on Sharing Saturday!!
Oh, I just love this! Love that it links to a book your son is interested, and I love the sensory aspect of it as well. Plus, it looks like tons of fun. I’m featuring this at Share It Saturday tomorrow!
Morning! I’ve featured this fun activity on The Sunday Showcase this week: http://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2013/08/24/toddler-play-sunday-showcase.html