Bubble Fun

Bubble mix improves after sitting so make it the day before you go out to play. Make enough for many activities. Gently stir together:

• 1 part dishwashing liquid (Dawn® works best.)
• 10 parts distilled water
• ¼ part white corn syrup (such as Karo®)

A wire coat-hanger, straws, and plastic rings that hold a six-pack of soda all make good bubble blowing tools. Even your hands, thumb and forefingers joined together, dipped in the mixture can make huge bubbles.

Cut off the ends of a quart milk carton to make a square wand, or make a square wand from a hanger. Ask your child what shape its bubble will be. Dip one end into the mix and gently blow through the other. Watch her surprise as a round bubble emerges from this square device. Explain that bubbles are always round. They naturally pull into the shape with the smallest surface area—a sphere.

Pour bubble mix into several cups, adding a few drops of different food coloring to each. Blow a rainbow of bubbles into the air and have your child “catch” them on a white piece of paper and watch them pop.

• Hop and Pop: Blow as many bubbles as you can in the air and have your child jump around to break as many as possible before they hit the ground.
• Blow, Baby, Blow: Tell your child to take a deep breath and gently blow through a straw, starting on the surface of a dish of bubble mix and pulling the straw up as he or she blows. Explain that the longer he blows, the bigger the bubble.
• Bubble Tag: Confine the game to a specific area. The person who is “it” blows bubbles toward the other player, who dodges them until he or she is hit. Then change places.