Art with Bubbles

 
(A version of this post was originally published on KidsActivitiesBlog.com.)

 
Blowing bubbles is the bread and butter of childhood memories. It’s calming and fun. Add some colour to the bubbles and make some beautiful easy art.

 
You will need large sheet(s) of white paper; masking tape; food colouring; bubble soap and bubble blowing wands. (See our DIY Bubble Mix Recipe or DIY Baby Bath Bubble Solution recipe for bubble soap).

 
Set up the invitation to play:

 
Tape a large sheet of paper somewhere so that it’s at your child’s height. (I placed our broom across a gap between our garden hedges and taped paper onto the hanging broom).

 
Make coloured bubble solution by mixing a small amount of food colouring into the bubble soap. Be warned that food colouring may stain, so it may be wise for children to wear protective clothing or clothing that you don’t mind getting stained.

 
The stronger the bubble solution, the better; (or you will end up with many ‘spray’ splats from failed bubbles).

 
This is a great group activity. The boys really enjoyed working together making art; that alone is priceless.

 
N, M and E learnt that the closer they stood to the paper, the easier it was for the bubbles to land on the paper. Some bubbles popped quickly once they touched the paper; other more stubborn bubbles required popping – what a joyful task that was!

The post Art with Bubbles by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Ingredients

1 part baby bath (I used a no more tears variety)
1 part water

Method

Place the ingredients together in a jar and shake it vigorously to mix.

How We Played

There was the usual waving of the arms and running around to pop bubbles, but the boys decided today that they wanted to catch some bubbles in cups too.

They tried and tried but could not catch any bubbles in their cups. What were they to do? Only what four year old and two year old boys could do; stomp on those bubbles (of course)!

Notes from the Trenches

The above solution of one part baby bath and one part water works very well. Consistently rich bubbles and lots of them. It works so well that I’m certain the 1:1 ratio of baby bath to water can be diluted slightly so you don’t need to use quite so much baby bath, and still get lots of consistently rich bubbles.

The beauty of using a no more tears variety of bubble bath for this bubble solution is if it does get into their eyes, it’s not so painful. And to top it off, I now have a garden that smells like baby bath; calming and delightful!

N&M: 3 years, 11 months
E: 1 year, 10 months
May 2012

The post Baby Bath Bubble Solution by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Makes about 1.2L of bubble solution

2 cups dishwashing liquid

4 cups water

1/2 cup glycerol

A few notes about the ingredients:

• I used a cheap dishwashing liquid (Morning Fresh) from the two dollar shop. Coincidence would have it that it cost me $2. Ha! Bear in mind the dishwashing liquid’s colour and fragrance as this will be what your bubble solution will look and smell like.
• Use distilled water, (bought from the chemist), instead of tap water. The softer the water, the better your bubbles will be. I haven’t tried normal tap water yet, but a quick surf around the web shows that tap water also works.
• Glycerol (also bought from the chemist) helps the bubbles last longer. If you don’t have glycerol, you can use sugar instead.

Regarding the amounts of dishwashing liquid, water and glycerol, the rule is, the closer it is to having equal parts of everything, the more longer your bubbles will last. So, if you made a batch of 1 cup dishwashing liquid, 1 cup water and 1 cup glycerol you would have a long-life bubble solution. I.e. if you could contain your bubble somehow and keep it from drying out it could potentially last months. Wow!

Method

If using sugar instead of glycerol, warm up the water. Gently mix all the ingredients together and leave it to sit in an open container. The longer you mix the solution and the longer you leave it, the better the solution will be.

 N & M: 3 years, 7 months
E: 1 year, 6 months
K: 1 month

See our own Bubbalicious Spring Greetings for our creative bubble play ideas.

This post was shared in the following linky parties:

It’s Playtime
For the Kids Fridays
Baby Play Friday
Play Academy
Sunday Showcase
Sharing Saturday

The post DIY Bubble Mix Recipe by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.