Many children’s ‘experiments’ use everyday items in the pantry. So when the weather packs in and you’re at your wits end for easy entertainment ideas, try some simple ones like these.

Kids love bubbles. Indoors, outdoors, still days, windy days, big ones, small ones…they’re great to chase and pop and you can wonder at the rainbow of colours and reflected shapes seen in them.

An easy bubble mixture is 9 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid stirred carefully with one tablespoon of glycerine. The glycerine makes the bubbles stronger and last longer. You can use the plastic bubble blowers left over from previous bubble kits, or make your own with thin wire or even bag ties taped onto pencils.

How about making your own volcano? You can do the basic experiment of putting baking soda in a container and adding vinegar to watch it fizz and froth. Alternatively you can make the whole experience last longer by making a volcano out of playdough or plasticine. Create a well at the top to hold the baking soda then slowly pour on the vinegar and watch it erupt!

The baking soda fizzing is also used for making hokey pokey. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then heat 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of golden syrup in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar has melted and the mixture is boiling. Remove from the heat and add a teaspoon of baking soda. Stir quickly as the sugar mixture froths up and pour it onto the baking paper. Break into pieces when cold and use to decorate cup cakes, add to ice cream or cook in muffins.

A fun experiment to watch is the dancing raisins. Fill a glass with fizzy soda water or lemonade. Drop in a few raisins and watch them dance up and down. If your child is scientifically minded you can try explaining how it works. The carbon dioxide bubbles in the drink form on the rough edges of the raisins and lift them to the top of the glass. The bubbles then burst into the air when they reach the top of the glass, so the raisin falls to the bottom again. This also works with unpopped popcorn.

Another floating experiment is to put an orange in a bowl of water and watch it float. Take the orange out and peel it, then put it back in the water and see what happens. The unpeeled orange floats because orange peel is full of trapped air pockets. When you remove the peel (and the air pockets) the orange sinks because it is denser than the water. You then get to eat the orange!

Fingerpaint can be fun for making handprints, footprints and other pictures. A recipe for cooked fingerpaint is to mix 2 cups of cornflour into a smooth paste with a little cold water in a saucepan. Add 5 cups of cold water and stir over a low heat for about 10 minutes. The mixture will thicken to a consistency that will pour slowly and briefly keep its shape. You can add food colouring or paint to make different colours.

You can also make another variation, tasty fingerpaint. Take a pack of instant pudding and prepare according to the instructions. Add food colouring to make different colours then away you go, creating fingerpaint masterpieces.

A New World Babies Club member has also suggest this Guide to Online Schools site for older children which is very cool.

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