A lazy, active volcano. 

I’m a lazy mum, honestly I am. I see so many interesting things to do but if it requires a shopping trip and more than 15 mins prep then it has lost me – it takes a lot of energy to clean bums whilst plastering an ever lasting smile on my face!!

The kids were watching an episode of ‘My Family’ on CBeebies on the other day and witnessed a family build a volcano – the whole shabang. Pva glue mixed with water, newspaper, dipping it all in, sticking it on, waiting for it to dry, paining it and then creating the magic.

My eldest turned it me with big bright brown eyes, an eager smile and said, “Can we do that mummy?”

My ever lasting smile started falling off my face. Ahhhhhh!! Noooooo! Please no! The mess! And I’ll be doing most of the work! But I kept calm and composed. “Yep, maybe we can.”

After doing a bit of research and thinking I was very happy to come across the idea of a ‘backyard volcano’ which literally was a volcano shaped out of a mound of dirt. No glue. No dripping mess. THIS we could do. So we did!

Now the kids had already seen a demonstration on television so they knew what was going to happen. Also, we’ve worked with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (the ingredients needed to do this experiment) before – when we were looking at blowing up a balloon, which meant I had to think carefully about how to get some learning out of today’s activity.

So I decided that the following question was posed: Which would create the better/more explosive volcano – adding baking soda to vinegar? Or vinegar to baking soda?

I began the activity talking about volcanoes to see what they already knew. I then showed them a video about volcanoes which you can find here. We re-watched the CBeebies show and pointed out the ingredients they used to make the explosion. Had we used them before? My youngest was quick to say ‘egg!’ She picked up on the vinegar and remembered we had used it to make the bouncy egg – I was super impressed! I reminded them about the balloon experiment and with a little prompting they (well the eldest) remembered a few key words such as carbon dioxide. My youngest then went looking for the vinegar in the kitchen!! They remembered it looked like water and also did not fall for the ‘Mmmm, smell it’ trick!

I gathered the rest of the things needed. For this you will  need:
Bicarb of soda
Food colouring
2 containers/cups
A jug & spoon

Whilst the kids were busy putting their shoes on I poured the vinegar into the jug and mixed in the food colouring (a large amount!)

Off we headed into the back garden. We have lots of gravel/stones in our garden in certain areas – it was with this we created a ‘mound’. You can do it with sand, soil/mud if you prefer or have that to hand instead. If none of these are available then do not worry! You could do this whole experiment with 2 cored apples!! By removing the core of the apple, you have your ‘container’. Just make sure they are the same type of apples because different types of apples can effect the result – but that’s a whole other experiment. When doing science its best to change one variable at a time – so keep it fair and simple.

In the top of the mound the cup was placed and pushed down. We created two volcanoes as we would be comparing the explosions created by changing when an active ingredient would be added.

In one volcano we added bicarb of soda to the cup. In the other we added the vinegar.

Now the preparation was fully complete it was time to make predictions. Which would create the more explosive volcano – adding vinegar to baking soda? Or adding baking soda to vinegar?

Each volcano was tested individually and here are the results…..

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This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The kids LOVED this. So did I – and no mess to clean up (well apart from washing the pots and jug – but when is there not washing up??). The stones were flattened out and the rain will wash away the rest.

The science bit:

The vinegar (acid) and bicarb of soda (base) mix to make an acid-base reaction, producing carbonic acid. This product is very unstable and splits to form water and carbon dioxide which expands and rises up. Having the vinegar poured directly onto the soda (so putting the soda in the cup first) means that the vinegar makes contact with as much soda as possible and so produces a ‘better’ result than adding the bicarb to the vinegar.

Bicarbonate of soda
Carbon dioxide

Key questions
What do you know about volcanoes?
What colour is lava?
What happens when you mix vinegar and bicarbonate of soda?
What is the gas that is made?/Why are there bubbles?
Which will make the bigger/better explosion?

Simple, cheap, quick and explosive fun…..ENJOY!


An eggcellent Easter. 






I then set up the experiment.










The science bit:



Egg White
Carbon dioxide

Key Questions:
What is an egg?
Where does this egg come from?
What other animals lay eggs?
What is inside the egg?
What is on the outside?
What can the egg become?
What does it need to hatch?
What will the vinegar do to the egg?
What is making the bubbles?
What happened?
What can you see is happening?



Have fun!


More with magnets….






What you will see is the paperclip ‘defy’ gravity.









Key questions:
What happens when you jump?
What will happen when you throw this paperclip in the air?



Have fun!

Magic Magnets

Well, this post has taken a little longer to write. Not because I didn’t know how to – but entirely because it has taken me longer than anticipated (much longer) to recover from a night out! I do not know what has been worse on my body…..the drink or the heels?! Day 4 and though I am still tired, I am finally starting to feel like myself. I may even manage a run in the morning! Here’s hoping. Well, I really ought to. Filling myself with warm pizza, cold pizza and 300 million biscuits is beginning to show itself around my middle.

[Update – I did in fact manage a run this morning!]

This week we have had fun, a whole variety of fun with magnets. With two horseshoe magnets that I bought from Wilko’s for £3, we have managed to occupy 3 days so far!

My kids are familiar with magnets. We have the standard fridge magnets, magnetic phone and tablet chargers and a magnetic picture/puzzle board.  They also have a magnetic building block set but yet with two large horseshoe magnets they have managed to really explore and learn with them. They went nuts as I pulled them out of the bag. I thought it would keep them still (maybe even actually sitting). Who was I kidding? It only fuelled and gave even more purpose to the constant running around the house. The first activity was to run around testing which bit of furniture the magnet ‘stuck’ to. For children, magnets really are magical. I was really impressed that something that cost me £1.50 and bought on a whim inspired instant investigation and wonder. Why was it not ‘sticking to that’? Why was it ‘sticking’ to this? I decided to not supply with answers immediately but urged them to explore, test even more and repeatedly nagged them to stop dropping their magnets.

Whilst they did this I found a box and filled it with small random items of household junk. Think of that drawer you have (everyone has it) the one in which you throw all the stuff you have no idea to put anywhere else. Yep, that drawer.  That random stuff is about to come in handy.

Fill a box/tray with the random stuff making sure you have a good selection of magnetic items in there too. To help you out here, items such as a fork, spoon, screw, nut, allen key, keying, paperclip, staple, jar lid, tweezers, safety pin, double/triple A batteries etc.  I will make a note here about basic health and safety – obviously ensure that the items you have chosen are age suitable and that your kids are aware how to hold them, not put them in the mouth etc. Small magnets which can be swallowed are also very dangerous and can lead to serious injuries. So please, be safe and supervise your children if you chose to play and explore with magnets.

I also quickly drew on a piece of paper: a horseshoe magnet and another with a cross through it (which I later cut into two). With some masking tape, I divided an area of the floor into two. We were going to do a basic sorting activity.

DSC_0840 - Copy

Quite simply, the kids pulled out an item from the box and tested if it was magnetic or not and placed it into the correct category. This activity really did keep them busy. To encourage thoughts and discussion we went through the names of the items, described them (they also asked me a few questions here) and before testing I asked if it would ‘stick’ or not. Initially we stuck with this word for the first few items before introducing the word ‘magnetic’. Once this was grasped and association was made, even the youngest preferred using the technical term – or in her case ‘magnekik’.

I did do this activity individually with the kids. I wanted to ensure the youngest was getting a chance to explore and speak independently. It also gave me the opportunity to challenge the older one. With my older one I was able to talk about the materials the were made from, the similarities and differences between the magnetic items and even get him to consider if all metal items were magnetic. The older one, whilst sorting, also saw that with some items e.g. clothes peg, part of them were magnetic and other parts were not. This opened up a new sorting group and he began placing these sorts of items in the middle of the two established categories. I was pretty impressed! I was even more impressed when the lazy fart stopped physically picking things from the box and instead simply hovered his magnet over the box to see what would be attracted to it!!

After establishing that not all metals are magnetic we talked about the main magnetic metal, Iron. I know there are others, but I felt that right now that is all he needed to know. Plus, Iron is an easy one to remember when you love the superhero Ironman. Though this was a simple sorting activity, it was great for developing predictions. It was not a simply case of ‘yes/no it will be magnetic’ but I encouraged the older one to think about why he made a particular prediction.

This was not the end of the magic magnetic experience. Not only do I have a few more activities lined up this week but I decided to do one more cool thing with magnets.

I took a glass and dropped a paperclip in there and asked if they thought the magnet could work through the glass. Once amazed by this, I filled the glass with water and asked if the magnet would work in water. Watch out for bright eyes and open mouths. Easily pleased at this age!

And some more playing with magnets….

The science bit:

Magnets can attract other magnets but they can also attract magnetic materials. All magnetic materials are metals however only a few metals are magnetic.
Iron IS magnetic, so any metal with iron in it will be attracted to a magnet. Steel contains iron, so a steel paperclip, for example, will be attracted to a magnet. Most other metals, for example aluminium, copper and gold, are NOT magnetic.

Keywords used today:

Key questions:
Do you know the name of this magnet?
Will it stick?
Is this magnetic?
Why do you think it is/is not magnetic?
How do you know it will/will not be magnetic?
Were you right?
What is the same/different in the magnetic items?
Are all things metal, magnetic?

There are an abundance of activities you can do with magnets and many are perfect for preschoolers. For example, the paperclip in the glass of water could easily be lots of paperclips in plastic bottles filled with lentils, sand, rice etc. I will be doing a few more activities with magnets and will keep this blog updated.

Have fun with an activity that takes less than a few minutes to set up but entertains for hours!

Weetabix Sneezes

Thank you for your weetabix sneezes,

for pulling away when I wipe the sleep from your creases.

I know I moan, sigh and sometimes (okay, often) shout,

But this raising a human is a lot harder than I thought it’d turn out!

Your big brown eyes and you grabbing my leg

melt my heart

just like watching you





You ask me questions which I explain in an very adult, semi child friendly way

which you accept, say ‘oh’ then show me things wanted for your birthday.

Daily, I remind you to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’,

No, please no, don’t show me that bogey or poo!

You make me laugh from my belly and my cheeks hurt from smiling,

I’d do anything, yes anything, to stop you from crying.

I love when you use appropriate words inappropriately

and adjectives after nouns seemlessly, repeatedly.

Apologies are due for my many moody mornings,

but wait until my coffee, please heed this warning!

Oh little one, thank you for your weetabix sneezes,

I hope you know

I love you

to absolute pieces.


Love Mummy xx