Experiment

Vegetable-Dyed Easter Eggs

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This post was originally shared in April 2011. I’m trying to make a move away from synthetic food dyes and wanted to use natural, homemade dyes this year. Not only are these colors absolutely healthy for human consumption, but the process of making them is a wonderful lesson in creating art materials from scratch and [...]

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Easy String Art Experiments for Kids

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“The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.” – Jackson Pollack, American Painter String Art Creating string art is a fun mix of art, creative thinking, and experimentation all rolled into one open-ended package. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know that when it comes [...]

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Marbled Paper Suminagashi

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Are you looking for a last-minute hands-on gift, or maybe an idea to bookmark for a cold winter day? I’ve been saving this Suminagashi kit for a quiet morning and it was a true winner with both my 2-year old and 4-year old. The process of marbleizing paper encourages creative thinking, open-ended exploration with ink [...]

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Baked Pumpkin Seeds

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While it still feels like summer here in California, pumpkins are showing up at our markets and the feeling of Autumn is in the air. How do you cook pumpkin seeds My older daughter asked about getting a pumpkin, so we picked up a small pie pumpkin the other day and then promptly turned it [...]

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A Scientific Experiment with Celery and Food Coloring

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The following post is from the archives. It originally appeared in April, 2011.   While I’m an art educator by trade, having small people pulling at my pants has turned me into a mini-alchemist who’s suddenly found herself reading books to her kids about Galileo (The Magic Schoolbus and the Science Fair Expedition) and brewing [...]

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Diet Coke Mentos Experiment

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My 4-year old and our neighbor enjoyed witnessing this explosive soda and Minty Mentos experiment. Have you tried it? It doen’t require a huge set-up, and the show is pretty awesome. I have to warn you that the explosion itself goes by quickly, so you might want to have an arsenal of soda containers on [...]

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Crushed Flower Experiment

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Now that summer is coming to an end (sniff — I’m kind of in denial — you?), it’s a good time to harvest some of your last blooms for some flower-painting experiments. We took a walk around the neighborhood and picked some weeds from wild roadside gardens, and also selected a handful of flowers and [...]

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Invisible Ink: A Citrus Painting Experiment

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Can you tell me what you think? I’m playing around with my header design (procrastinating away from other important things, no doubt) and would love to hear your opinion on it. Do you like it? Is it legible? Does it need anything? What do you think about the sub-heading? When you think about Tinkerlab, what [...]

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Egg Geodes Science Experiment

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Today I’m excited to talk with you about a cool science experiment: egg geodes. Because children will engage in steps of the scientific method, this could easily be a great science fair project. I was inspired by these egg geodes that I spotted on Martha Stewart and then followed this recipe by Melissa Howard who blogs at Those [...]

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