From the 'Burg to Your Kitchen

For this week’s edition, I decided to do something kid-friendly.

Children probably have a lot of questions about what is going on in the world and are also confused as to why they can’t go to school to see their friends.

Why not bring some of the fun parts of the classroom into your kitchen to help entertain your children?

Here are three different experiments you and your family can cook up.

DIY Lava Lamp

In a tall glass, combine the following ingredients: water, vegetable oil, food coloring of your choice and an antacid tablet.

Since water and oil don’t mix so easily, add in the antacid tablet and you’ll get your own homemade lava lamp.

Homemade Rock Candy

Ingredients:

2 cups water

4 cups sugar

2 drops food coloring

1/2 tsp. flavoring

Directions:

Clean a Mason jar and soak a wooden skewer with water and then roll in granulated sugar; set aside.

In a medium pan, place water in a pan and bring to a boil. After boiling, add the sugar, 1 cup at a time and boil the syrup until all sugar has been added and is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat.

If you are going to add coloring or flavoring, add it now and then let syrup cool 10 minutes.

Pour into prepared jars; lower a skewer into jar until it hangs 1 inch from the bottom. Cover with a paper towel. You should see crystals forming within 2 to 4 hours.

Homemade Butter

This is one of the best experiments we do in preschool and kids are fascinated how this happens.

All you need is heavy cream and an empty baby food jar. Add about 1/4 heavy cream, seal up the container, and start shaking.

After about 5 minutes of shaking, you’ll start seeing tasty butter forming.