Many kids love to make messes, and summer is a great time for messy outdoor fun! Vinegar and baking soda are inexpensive ingredients you can use for hours of fun, inside or out. If you have a sandbox, build a “volcano”, a pile of sand with a deep hole from the top down. Fill the hole with baking soda, and then pour in a cup of vinegar to watch the volcano “erupt”! Look at your local library for some books about volcanoes to read to your child. Gail Herman’s book The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top is one of our favorites!
Here are a few other fun activities to try with vinegar and baking soda:
- Fill a bowl with baking soda and give the kids a cup or two of vinegar at a time, then let them play with the ingredients using measuring spoons, funnels, cups, bowls, or anything you have available.
- Vinegar is also good for killing weeds, so if you fill a spray bottle with vinegar and water they can have fun cleaning up a walkway or patio. Be careful though, because the vinegar will kill the grass too!
- Use the vinegar and water in a spray bottle to clean out door windows too. Give the kids a cloth and they’ll enjoy helping with that chore. Clean everyone off with a hose when they’re done, no stains and nothing poisonous for your children or pets.
While you have the hose out, try filling a baby pool or some buckets with water and give your child a variety of containers, measuring cups, measuring spoons, funnels and a couple of sponges. They will have lots of fun measuring and pouring the water as they keep cool on a summer day! You can also give them some paintbrushes and rollers and invite them to “paint” the driveway, sidewalk or the walls of your home with water!
Kindergarten Prep at Home 