Category: Newsletter

A mentally sedentary summer can cause your child’s learning to stagnate and backslide, erasing the equivalent of as much as two months of in-school learning. But you can have fun with your kid this summer and help them learn at the same time. Try this project from sciencebob.com, which demonstrates how geodes are formed and gives a primer on the science of crystals. The results are stunning!

All you need are some clean eggshells, water, several different soluble materials (salt, sugar, baking soda, borax, cream of tartar), coffee cups, spoons, food coloring, and egg cartons.

First, crack the eggs as close to the narrow end as possible. Then, clean the eggshells in hot water, which allows you to pull the skin out of the inside.

Place the shells in an egg carton lined with wax paper to hold them upright. Boil the water and pour half a cup into each coffee mug, followed by ¼ cup of one of the soluble materials, stirring until it dissolves. Keep adding the solid slowly until the water is supersaturated — this simply means that the water has absorbed all it can and any additional solid won’t dissolve.

Then, add food coloring to the solutions. See what creative color combinations your child can come up with.

Carefully pour the solution into an eggshell, filling it as full as you can without the solution overflowing or the egg tipping over. As the water evaporates (be patient!) crystals will begin to form inside the eggshells.

But how? As the water is heated, it expands, allowing more space for the dissolved solution. When it cools and evaporates, that space goes away, and the solids are forced to become solid again.

See, science is fun and educational! Check out further science experiments on sciencebob.com, sciencekids.co.nz, or redtri.com/ classic-science-experiments!

The sun is summer’s greatest ally — and greatest enemy. For every sun-soaked day at the beach, there are sunburns trying to ruin the party. With every excuse to drink an icy beverage, the sunshine’s more determined to keep the drink from staying cool.

These hacks will allow you to enjoy the benefits of the summer sun without the side effect of a warm beverage.

First, let’s say you just got home from the grocery store where you purchased a 12-pack of your favorite soda. You’re thirsty and it’s room temperature at best, right? Patience is a virtue, but there’s nothing wrong with accelerating the process. Fill a bowl with ice water and add a teaspoon of salt, then submerge a can of soda in the bowl. This process will cool your drink more than twice as fast as just putting it in the freezer.

This other example requires less work, but it takes more freezer space. And if you’re like the rest of us, your freezer is pretty packed in the summer! Wet a paper towel and wrap it around a bottle or can before you place it in the freezer. The contents inside will cool much more quickly.

If you have more time to plan, this hack will keep your drink cold for longer. Ice doesn’t fit in a bottle, and freezing your beer or other beverage will get you to Slushy Town in a hurry. Fill an empty bottle about halfway, put the cap on, and place it in the freezer on its side. When it’s frozen, pour your favorite beverage inside — the ice from top to bottom will keep the contents cool on the go.

Bonus Hack: This has nothing to do with the sun, but is still a neat way to make drinking your beverage easier. If you go fancy and use a straw when you drink from a can, you know how hard it is to get the straw to stay put. Spin the can’s tab around and feed the straw through it. Now you’ll have a well-behaved straw that doesn’t shift around when you need it to be there for you.

The sun is hot, and the summer is long. You need the comfort of a cool beverage to help you get through it. Keep cool, wear sunscreen, and have fun!