Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Eco-Tech Bulb

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Today we made a light bulb.

Green Science: Eco Tech Bulb

Green Science: Eco Tech Bulb

This is a hand cranked or gravity powered light bulb. With a water bottle and a pull you can get around 60 seconds of light from the bulb. I know it sounds silly, but after an extended power outage the kids we very interested. After getting this all setup the kids played with it for a shocking amount of time and fight over who gets it in their bedroom. Now often before bed as all the other lights go out the cord on this light is pulled for a last minute of dim light in the room before bed.

Kid Approved? Yes

Honestly, for how simple this was I have been shocked at the staying power of the light with the kids. They enjoy playing with it and asking questions about it. They show it to friends and they enjoyed the project.

While this kit is mostly put together and requires far less build time, it was still a win and I assume will be a science toy sticking around for a number of years in this house.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Salt Powered Robot

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

A simple kit that the kids could complete

Green Science Salt Powered Robot

This kit allows kids to put together a snap-together robot in Lego-like fashion. It doesn’t take long to put together, and they learn a little about the science of electricity and batteries along the way. It was an OK kit that the kids were able to follow from start to finish, but it didn’t hold their interest long as the final “toy” was too slow and couldn’t really be controlled, so they quickly lost interest,

Kid Approved? Mhhh

I am giving this an OK rating in that it was able to keep them interested long enough to complete everything, but they lost interest fast and had no interest in returning to the robot toy. We built this when our kids were 4 and 6, and it did work well enough for the 4-year-old to follow along, which is nice.

The small robot fits easily in the palm of your hand

In the end, at only $10 this isn’t a bad kit if you haven’t done many like it, but we already built a solar-powered soda can car, which goes much faster and can crash / drive off stairs. So that was a bit better and they have revisited playing with the soda can car much more. If you have already done some other battery / electric kits, this one would be low on my list, but if you haven’t done any others, this one is cheap and simple to do with younger kids… However, they also enjoyed a lemon battery light more than this as well.

kids, Pictures, Retrospectives

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY 2024!

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See more pictures from our 2023 adventures.

2023 was a year of transitions for the Miller-Mayers. Theo transitioned to first grade at a Spanish immersion elementary school in Denver Public Schools and Sasha grew into generally sleeping through the night. Both Dan and Erin started new jobs — Dan at Shopify and Erin at Community Catalyst, having spent 8 legislative sessions passing bills to improve health coverage and equity in Colorado, she is now working on health policy across states and at the federal level. Dan also transitioned from a broken to screw-filled to largely healed ankle bone (broken while bouldering at a local gym), a transition aided by his new Spa Serene 6 hot tub. 

The kids transitioned to skiers, and Theo learned to ride a bike and surf, and Sasha learned to swim. The year also included several work trips for Erin and lots of family trips, including to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Mexico, and Hawaii.

All our love and best wishes for 2024!

Erin, Dan, Theo (6) and Sasha (4)

Click through to see the full 2023 gallery
Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Fall Fun

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

Free Fall Fun

I mostly have posted about various kits we use for science activities, but there are plenty of free/cheap DIY activities to do. I will collect some of the fall favorites here.

  • hiking
  • harvesting
  • pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!
  • cookie decorating
  • leaf art
  • costumes
various fall fun

Pumpkins

There are tons of things to do with with pumpkins and they have been a favorite since the kiddos were babies. A short list of things we do.

  • painting pumpkins
  • picking pumpkins from farms, fall fests, etc
  • baking seasoned pumpkin seeds
  • carving pumpkins
pumpkin fun

Pumpkins are a simple and easy activity for easy fall fun, starting at a young age…

flying spiderman over pumpkins
painting with daddy
picking pumpkins
preparing pumpkins for carving
baby pumpkin painting
painting with mamma
teamwork clean out that pumpkin

Cookie Decorating

Fall is a good time for baking, cookies, gingerbread, and of course all the decorating that comes along with it.

cookies

Leaf Art

I remeber doing this as a kid myself and thought it made such pretty art. There are a number of leaf art projects. Erin helped the kids collect leaves and then ironed them between wax paper which creates a beautiful stain glass like leaf art.

Fall Leaf Art
Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Colour Lab Mixer

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

KidzLabs Colour Lab Mixer

The “colour” very British 😉 This KidzLabs Colour Lab Mixer is a simple kit that mostly lets the kids use easy-to-clean dyes to mix colors. The kit includes 18 projects, but some of them were above my kid’s attention span threshold. We also had the KiwiCo color chemistry set, which other than the Volcano activities didn’t drive as much variety as this kit.

The color lab kit

The kit comes with pretty simple materials but has had a good amount of activities, and honestly, young kids enjoy playing with color mixing, so it has gone pretty far. We have stored away the kit and re-used it for different activities or to repeat activities for over a year. Just giving them some tubs and colors and challenging them to make a new color like Orange (mix Yellow and Red) was fun for them.

The back shows some of the activities

A recent big hit has been “color fireworks,” which you can probably put together without anything in the kit… We ran out of the dye that comes with the kit long ago and just used food coloring or other kid-safe dyes. You find a jar and fill 90% with water 10% with oil, then put colors into the droppers to add “bubbles of color,” which explode when they sink through the oil and break through to the water.

under water “explosions”
watching with interest
taking turns
adding the color drops

Kid Approved? Yes

Again, you can do most of these activities without any kit, but the kit gets you started and gives you some good ideas. Then, you have some good bottles, tubes, droppers, and other reusable items.

Replayability: Good

At least from ages 2-6 this has solidly kept their interest each time it is out as we push towards the more complicated activities. So things weren’t hits (ice rainbow, dye flowers didn’t work out well)… Others were big hits, rainbow color mixer, fireworks in water, and watercolor on paper.

making primary colors for mixing

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Solar System Sewing Kit

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

Solar System Sewing Kit

kids sewing kit

This sewing kit, which we got a bit too early for our kids (currently 6 and 4) it is intended for 7+… The first time we pulled it out, they were 5 and 3 and didn’t have the dexterity to sew. We have brought it out two other times since, and they are getting better the 6 year old can basically do it, but I am walking through it hand and hand with the 4 year old… It hasn’t been a hit, but they like it well enough for an activity once in awhile and have managed to keep their creations together in little bags in their toy drawers, so they enjoy adding to the collection. There are many CiyvoLyeen sewing kits so you can find one that matches their interests and save it for rainy days.

Kid Approved? Passable

Again, this isn’t a big hit, but given we have gone through it a few times and not thrown it out, I expect we will eventually have to sew together all t he planets, rockets, and astronauts. Given it hasn’t broken, lost too many pieces, or been thrown out, it is clearly a decent success.

Replayability

Good for quieter days or as an activity with a family movie on in the background. This requires pretty active parent participation as they won’t complete an item on their own.

The 4 year old helped make Jupiter
Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Volcanos

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

Volcanos

While I have some kits, they aren’t necessary, and compared to any other activity, this one is always a hit. My kids would probably do it every day if they were allowed. All their friends enjoy it when we set it up for larger groups. There are endless ways to mix and match to keep the activity fresh and fun. It only requires baking soda and vinegar, which we now purchase in bulk.

one of the first volcano kits

Mix It Up

So other than using a few standard kits we have expanded it in many ways. We have added safe dyes to color the lava. We have added a number of containers for making “experiments” and we have a few containers that can keep the pressure and then use it to fire off little nerf rockets. We do the activity outside, by the sink, at the kitchen table, and once in the winter in an empty kiddy pool in the basement. We have had so much fun over the years making little “explosions”

Kits or Skip It

I think a few of the kits have added to the fun as many parts are re-usable, and it comes with some reading to give a bit more learning and the science behind volcanos. Over the years I think I have gotten three kits. I know I got the one’s listed below:

  • Volcano Lava Lab – This is a good starter kit as it comes with some plastic volcano shapes that can be used for mixing baking soda and vinegar. It also comes with safety goggles, which the kids enjoy playing with… mixers, scoops, droppers, etc… This was a great start, and I just refilled the primary ingredients as needed.
  • NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Ultimate Volcano Kit – Erupting Volcano Science Kit – This kit has a lot more reading material and comes with a mold to make plaster volcanos. The kids enjoyed making the volcano with the mold and painting it. So it was also a hit, it also included some dye color refills which was needed.

I like having some of the kits and adding other containers and shapes into the mix. Then I buy vinegar and baking soda from Costco in bulk.

Kid Approved? Yes

I have been doing the volcano kits with kids for years and nearly ever group of our kids friends has had a blast with it.

with cousins, and yes I had to clean lava off the ceiling
The older kids running ‘experiments’
The younger one doing “mad science”

Honestly, if you haven’t done this with your kids I can’t recommend it highly enough. Everyone will have fun and it is a good way to re-awaken the kid in yourself.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Steam Kit Planes

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I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

Lakeshore Steam Kit Planes

This is a kit from Lakeshore. We haven’t done as many of their kits. Probably in part because this one didn’t go over very well… The Lakeshore Steam Kit Planes were underwhelming. It worked fine, and the kids could build planes (the youngest needing a lot of help)… The real issue is they just didn’t fly well. So we would spend a little bit of time building them, but after maybe 3 throws the kids lost interest. We got a little more time out of them by letting them color and decorate the planes, but in the end, they just couldn’t hold the kid’s interest. I tried again later when they were older and it still wasn’t a hit. In the end, they have honestly played more while making paper air planes.

is this better than a paper plane?

Kid Approved? No

Sorry, perhaps my kids were to young or they can make paper airplanes that are to good and fly much better… So these just didn’t make the cut. They

Replayability

low, the next time I got the box out to try the kids just groaned…

Kit / Toy Detailed Description

Inside the kit you will find wings, tails, straws, and a guide… If your kids are really into model building and following directions they might enjoy it more… If they just want to build quick planes and have races for who goes the furthest, well these aren’t worth the time, effort or cost.