Ethan had been bugging me for weeks to try out the volcano experiment in one of his science books. It isn't that i'm aversed to making and cleaning up messes - i simply can't remember to buy vinegar, an essential ingredient for the experiment, but not in my kitchen. We finally bought a bottle of the cheapest vinegar we can find at the supermarket, along with the cheapest salt, flour, baking soda and red food colouring. The first step is to make the dough to shape the volcano around a plastic bottle.
Well, we followed instructions. But as in following recipes, there are a million interfering factors which could make the end product so unlike those in the glossy pages. To begin with, there simply wasn't enough dough to make the volcano. And the dough was so gooey that Ewan was more concerned with getting the dough off his hands than joining Ethan in shaping the volcano.
The moment of truth - after adding warm water, baking soda, liquid detergent and red colouring, Ethan had the honour to pour vinegar into the bottle and then quickly stand back (so the book warns). The "eruption" was so slow in coming that we decided to help speed it up by shaking the volcano! Ah, we now witness the eruption. But alas, the red colouring is so unlike lava that i thought the whole thing looked like ice kacang.
Okay, the kids had fun and i'm sure they will always remember that even the cheapest baking soda and vinegar mixed together can cause a volcanic eruption.
