The simplest thing...

I love looking at big, elaborate science experiments online. I get big ideas about the great things Monster and I could do, the cute lab coat he'll wear and the things he'll learn. The problem, of course, is that Monster is not quite two. He isn't ready to sit down and make a hypothesis and explore ninety-three possible outcomes. He wants to see something cool, he wants to figure it out, and he wants to be able to do so independently because he is a "big boy" and no one better forget it. The most basic science experiment that I could think of (that is also 100% safe for him to do independently) was playing with baking soda and vinegar.

Getting started.

Plain baking soda and vinegar is fun but Monster sees me use it to clean and clear drains on a pretty regular basis so I didn't think it would be too exciting for him. To make it a bit more exciting I added a few drops of food colouring (neon food colouring!) to plastic containers full of baking soda and then we got to work. We started off using the turkey baster to add vinegar but it was too big for Monster to use comfortably. Plastic pipettes or eyedroppers are officially on my shopping list.

Once Monster got the hang of adding the vinegar he was on a roll - every container was fizzing and bubbling over. The best part was how many times he could get a container to re-fizz (there's no way that's a real word) just by adding some vinegar or poking/stirring/smushing his hands into the bowls. Eventually he had the soupy dark purple vinegar up to the edges of the casserole dish his project was contained in. I dumped it out and added a bit of fresh baking soda twice before he had enough of this project. 

We'll definitely be doing this again, Monster had way too much fun not to.