By Thi-Le Vo
Northwest Asian Weekly
A Mentos and diet soda explosion (far right), is the tallest and frothiest!
A favorite American traditional is to light fireworks on Independence Day. Many of us find joy in hearing the zip of hissing smoke as a bottle rocket takes to the sky before crackling loudly in an echo.
However, what about young children who are scared of the loud noises and are certainly not allowed to handle fire? Are they just left out?
They don’t have to be. This year, consider doing a special (and safe) project with the little ones. You’ll find that they’ll have just as much fun as their older brothers and sisters.
Bath bombs
What you will need:
- 1 cup of citric acid
- 2 cups of baking soda
- witch hazel
- 1 small water bottle
- 1 teaspoon of a colorant of your choice, dry pigments work best (optional)
- fragrance oil (optional)
- cupcake tins (or other dome-shaped molds)
Directions:
1. Blend the citric acid and baking soda. If you don’t blend well, you will end up with a grainy bomb.
2. Add your colorant.
3. Add fragrance oils.
4. Using the water bottle, spray the witch hazel onto your batch while stirring it with the other hand. When your batch starts to stick together, you’ll need to start putting it in molds — work quickly! If you wait too long, the mixture will harden, but if you spray too much, the mixture will start to fizz.
5. Put the bombs in molds — wait a few minutes and tap them out. Let them air dry for 3 to 4 hours. The harder you pack the bath bombs, the more durable the bombs will be.
6. Get a bath ready and plop your child in.
7. Drop your finished bombs into the water and watch them spin and bubble!
The baking soda volcano
What you will need:
- 6 cups of flour
- 2 cups of salt
- 4 tablespoons of cooking oil
- some warm water
- 1 empty plastic soda bottle (either a one- or two-liter bottle)
- 8 drops of dish-washing detergent
- 6 drops of red food coloring
- 4 tablespoons of vinegar
- a baking dish
- 2 tablespoons of baking soda
Directions:
1. Mix together the flour, salt, cooking oil, and 2 cups of water.
2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape. Don’t cover the hole or drop any dough into it.
3. Fill the bottle halfway with warm water and add a bit of red food coloring.
4. Add detergent and baking soda to the bottle.
6. Lastly, slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch out — eruption time!
The Mentos and diet soda eruption
What you will need:
- A roll or box of Mentos candy
- A full 2-liter bottle of diet cola
- A piece of paper
Directions:
1. Carefully open the bottle of soda. Position the bottle on the ground so that it will not tip over.
2. Unwrap the roll of Mentos. Roll the piece of paper into a tube just big enough to hold the loose Mentos. Position the tube directly over the mouth of the bottle so that all of the candies drop into the bottle at the same time.
3. Drop all of the Mentos into the bottle.
4. Stand back and watch the eruption! ♦
Thi-Le Vo can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.