Some of our favorites

It turns out that we're having a wet and rainy Christmas week. It was nice to have several activities that even the older kids were interested in doing (when they were bored of their new Christmas toys!).

One of our favorites was the "Snowglobe" science activity. We put our own little twist on it. The instructions only have one sample (the one using Karo Syrup), but we did three so that we could compare how the different liquids behaved. We did one using Karo, one using mineral oil (any oil would work, but mineral oil is cheap and clear) and the final one with water. In the picture our water one is a bit cloudy, but we couldn't wait until the glue in the cap was dry to try it out!

We used beads, glitter, and confetti pieces. As you can see each one was distinct. The kids loved playing with these. Even after the initial excitement wore off, I put them out on the toy shelf and they kept coming back to them throughout the week. Of course, please be sure to glue the lids on!!!

You could also do a combination of oil, water, food coloring and glitter (these make great "waves" to observe).

The other one that was a big hit with everybody was the "silver bells alphabet game." Our silver bells were Hershey Kisses. The idea is that once you find a match you get the keep the chocolate. As you can see everyone was interested in learning their letters again!!!

My one hint on this one, is to cut out the letters the night before (you know after the kids are in bed, while you're watching TV!!) Otherwise, half of the silver bells will disappear before you get to play the game. I used a 12oz package of chocolate kisses, and there were plenty (with a few left over).

Christmas Projects