Science on the Light Box: Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar

Light Box Science: Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar

I grabbed one light box and the translucent tray to go on top. I also got out some baking soda, food coloring, and four 2 oz squeeze bottles filled about halfway with vinegar and gathered the children around the light box on the kitchen floor.

We reviewed what happened when we mixed water and oil on the light box (they stay separate). I explained that this time we were going to put colored vinegar on baking soda. I let them taste the vinegar and the baking soda. They claimed they liked both. I had them make a guess about what would happen when we dripped colored vinegar on the baking soda (their guess was that the baking soda would get wet and turn colored).

We chose four colors of food coloring and colored the vinegar in the squeeze bottles. I also used some leftover colored water for contrast. I sprinkled a rather thick layer of baking soda in the translucent tray and began by dripping some colored water on the baking soda and asking them to tell me what happened. They decided that the baking soda was wet and colored just like they guessed.

Then we tried the colored vinegar and got colored bubbles. We decided that when vinegar combines with baking soda we get a different reaction than when water mixes with baking soda. Vinegar makes bubbles and water does not. That was as complex as we got.

They were quite impressed and couldn't wait to play themselves. I handed them squirt bottles and let them begin.

Ava discovered that if she mixed yellow and blue she could make green bubbles. That was a lot of fun. The next time I try this activity I think I'll give each child three bottles with red, blue, and yellow and encourage them to mix colors as they go.

At one point the first tray of baking soda was completely saturated and I quickly rinsed it out dried it. We distributed a much thinner layer the second time and tried to make actual designs.

Cleanup was as easy as rinsing the tray out and drying it with a cloth.

Simple Homemade Therapy Reinforcer

Ava has an expressive speech delay (definitely a strong motor speech component and a significant phonological processing component). She sees an early intervention therapist weekly and we also see a local apraxia expert a little less often (once or twice a month on average).

(I'm getting to the therapy reinforcer, I promise.)

Even though I'm a certified speech therapist myself we don't do enough therapy at home. The therapist/client dynamic is hard between mother and daughter and I find her difficult to positively reinforce. Ava does respond well to froot loops. Froot loops aren't great for therapy rhythm though. It seems to take forever to chew one and she can't talk while chewing. Kind of counterproductive don't you think?

Then I had a great idea. It just popped into my head. The brilliant idea came as I was lying in bed. Working out the details in my mind stole at least half an hour of sleep, but it was worth it. So, the next day I made this:

I call it the Froot Loop Therapy Reinforcer. :-)

I pull a random froot loop from a bag after several repetitions (5-10 on an easy item, 1-2 on a harder one). She threads the froot loop on the matching color pipe cleaner. When she gets three of any one color she gets to eat them. It worked beautifully. It only takes a moment to pull one out of the bag and thread it but she likes that part so it is motivating. Then, every so often she ends up with three and gets to eat them (very motivating) and I can use those moments to mentally review what I want to do next or take a few notes.

It also has the benefit of working on color identification, color matching, and fine motor skills.

An alternative to froot loops would be threading color coordinated pony beads onto the pipe cleaners, but you just wouldn't eat them when the pipe cleaner was full. You'd need some other higher level reward (perhaps you could then thread three at a time onto yarn to make a bracelet for them to take with them at the end of the session).

Another advantage is that it is lightweight and can be folded flat for storage so if you travel for private practice or early intervention therapy, you could take it with you in a bag easily.

Here's how I made it.

1. Gather materials.
• Piece of cardboard.
• Piece of cardstock.
• Glue.
• Colored duct tape (optional).
• Pipe cleaners (red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple).
• Tool to poke small holes in cardboard (I used a sewing pin).
2. Poke holes about one inch apart in a line across cardboard.

3. Cut pipe cleaners to about 2-3 inches long and feed them halfway through holes in cardboard.
   
   
4. Twist them together on bottom to hold them to the right length.
   
   
   
5. Cut cardstock to the same size as cardboard and glue cardstock to bottom of cardboard to hide the pipecleaners.
6. (Optional) Put colored duct tape along sides to make a pretty border and help prevent your edges from separating.
   
   

The Weekly Review: Week 33

Website of the Week:

I browse the web looking for activity ideas a lot. I have about 30 open tabs in my browser at any given time. Often I have two copies of my web browser open with 30 tabs each. Consequently, the computer runs soooooo slowly and will occasionally pop up a message about how I'd better close the browser immediately because the computer is out of memory. Then I panic because I might lose all the tabs. "Oh, no! So many great ideas would disappear forever."

Then I discovered pinterest.com. It is like a virtual bulletin board. Members create boards around categories and they "pin" up pictures with links to the original websites and their comments. Pinterest has a whole category just for ideas other people have "pinned" with ideas for kids. The content is so deep. I could literally spend hours there.

I don't have a pinterest account myself. I desperately wanted one. Organization at my fingertips. Visual reminders of all the cool ideas. I was practically drooling. I requested an invite. I waited impatiently for several days and then I got one. Then I hit a stumbling block. In order to sign up, you -must- sign up through facebook or twitter. That was a big stumbling block for me. I don't want everything I "pin" automatically posted to my facebook account. I don't want pinterest to have access to my friends. It just made me nervous. So I didn't sign up. But I still think about it longingly.

Even if you don't want to sign up though, you should just check it out. It is gorgeous. And so many ideas in one place..... And they're already vetted by other people interested in the same topics.

The Weekly Obsession

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you've probably noticed that I've been on a huge activities-with-the-light-box kick (here, here, here, here). I sincerely apologize if I'm boring you to death. It's kind of the way I work. I get super excited about something and I do it a lot (remember the busy books?) until I get excited about something new and move on for a while. Stick with me and I'll get back to SLP, Apraxia, and other familiar topics soon enough. The kids are finally old enough that we are beginning to do regular "special projects" and it is wonderful. I expect that toddler/preschool activities will continued to be featured heavily for a while.

The Weekly Procrastination

As a certified SLP, I have to get a certain number of continuing education credits to maintain certification. There is no way for me to temporarily suspend certification while I am staying at home, so annual dues and continuing education credits are a must.

Our national organization requires 30 hours of continuing education every three years, or an average of 10 per year. Missouri requires 30 hours every two years. Sometimes the due date for national and state fall on the same year, sometimes not. I have decided that I just need to get 15 annually from now on and I'll always be current. (This is to avoid last year's debacle where I needed to get 30 hours in one month because having two under two pretty much killed all thoughts of continuing ed for 2-3 years).

I joined a pretty nice website (speechpathology.com) that has unlimited access to a nice library of courses for $99/year. I set a reminder in my iPhone calendar to let me know when I had only a month left to my membership. This week it let me know that the time has come. So now I need 13 more hours in the next three weeks.

Instead of hopping right on that, I did lots of light box activities with my children instead. I did mention that I occasionally (umm... often) procrastinate, right?

The Weekly Accomplishment

I sailed right through my husband's first extended business trip post kids. That felt nice. It was a shame that his homecoming consisted of us both realizing we had gotten sick while apart.

Ava this Week

Ava is learning the power of being dramatic and is attempting to determine how much she can use drama to manipulate those around her. Many times this week a scenario went this way:

1. Michael is playing with a toy.
2. Ava decides she would like the toy and attempts to grab it.
3. Michael, understandably resists.
4. Ava bursts into heartrending sobs and plaintively wails, "I want the ______."
5. Now, all of us are wise to the ploy (especially Michael) and so this gets her nowhere except possibly sent to her room until she calms down.
6. Therefore, hopefully, the behavior won't last long. In the meantime, it is definitely pitiful.

The Weekly Michael

When my husband told Michael that he'd be gone for a few days, Michael burst into tears. He was genuinely upset that his Daddy would be away. The next day, he asked his grandmother to help him make a "card" (a tiny yellow post-it, actually) to give to his Daddy when he came home and dictated the contents of the card. He brought it home and put it up on the refrigerator with a magnet. He couldn't keep it a surprise though. He told his Daddy all about the card that night on the phone. It was adorable.