Sunday, August 1, 2010

Crystal Garden Growing Kit

In our house, we often have a little science project underway, or a puzzle, or something like that.  The kids like to see things develop and grow into something larger.  Benny in particular is interested in science, rocks, space, the whole nine yards.  So last week when we went to the science museum, I picked up two experiments for us to do:  A 'grow your own dinosaur,' and "crystal growing garden."

Both were less than five dollars and when I opened the package I thought, "well, you get what you pay for...this will never amount to anything."  We put together flimsy cardboard trees, a mountain, propped them up in a wobbly tray, and poured in the magic liquid.  The next day.........




Spectacular!  You'll be glad to know the day after this photo was taken, "snow" covered the green mountain.  The whole thing is a mass of spiky crystals.

Don't you love the buds on the trees?


The kids were suitably impressed.  As for the dinosaur, he's been a lot of fun too.  We put him in a pot of water at 1.8 inches long.  Each day we take him out, trace him, measure him, and compare to the previous day.  At six days, he is now at six inches!!  And at least ten times the volume he was.

So yay for science and summer projects!

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