For the young space explorers

For the young space explorers

I have a space fanatic on my hands and it’s wonderful. There are times Olivia traipses around the house in her pink plastic heels and comments how she wants to wear makeup and get married to all the boys and I roll my eyes for fear my baby girl will become a teenage prostitute–common fear for most parents of daughters, right? No? Just me? Great.

Then there are moments when she proclaims she loves the stars and wants to be an astronaut and I wipe my brow in relief that maybe I haven’t failed you quite yet.

After showing some interest in space, I did what most parents do and looked for everything under the sun related to space: space exploration, planets, constellations, raising the next astronuat, my child is a genius and so on.

In my search, I came across Space Scouts, a monthly subscription box that sends various space themed activities such as exploration plans, constellation cards, sticker scrambles and more. This month was all about rockets so among the puzzles and trivia received, also included was a small toy rocket that is fueled by adding vinegar and baking soda. Olivia squealed in excitement in anticipation of the first rocket launch and instantly begged us to go outside and give it a try.

We ventured outside and with rocket in hand, I packed in the baking soda, added the correct amount of vinegar, and popped the rocket into its base. Everyone gathered around including our neighbor and with eager faces of anticipation, watched the rocket fizzle and pop in my hand. A bit anticlimactic given that it took me fifteen minutes to push one teaspoon of baking soda into a hole the size of a toothpick.

Your dad quickly offered to give it a go so another ten minutes later, the baking soda was packed and we were ready for blast off. The kids did a formal countdown and this time we had liftoff…an extroardinary two inch liftoff that propelled our excitement with a tiny pop.

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Adding the baking soda
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Adding the vinegar
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Look at that puppy fly to our feet!

Determined to make this thing take off, we resorted to just rubbing the rocket in baking soda and cramming it into the vile of vinegar. Fail. Where is the rocket scientist father-in-law when you need him?

We gave up and in turn found excitement in dumping baking soda on to the sidewalk and pouring vinegar over the powder to create a foamy/bubbly mixture. Thankfully, this excited the children, so much so that they poured little mounds of baking soda all around the front of our house making it look like we’re in a lucrative illegal business venture. (*hint: I’m talking about smack).

Cheers to science and to finding new ways to make the neighbors nervous!

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