Today my hometown, Durban, South Africa, hosted the 2018 Comrades Marathon. This meant that many of our local roads were closed, including the street outside of our complex. So, we mad sure to stock up on groceries yesterday and prepared for a quiet day at home. But ha ha, there's no such thing as quiet in our home! We have a three-year-old boy who's purpose seems to upset our neighbors with his almost constant screeching and boy banter. 

So, it was time to whip out some constructive (and quiet) activities so that we didn't pass the day behind the TV, or chasing the dog. We've pretty much done all the activities I could think of lately, so I resorted to ye' old "cooking" fun. My kid had a blast making his very own "coffee soup", which is what he called his concoction and during this activity he not only got to do some sensory play, he also developed his hand-eye coordination skill by pouring ingredients from cup to cup. To add: we incorporated a little science into the mixture by adding bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to create a bubbling effect (just like a boiling pot). 

It's safe to say we spent quite some time cooking up a storm while enjoying some time outdoors (which is where I highly recommend you do this activity, it makes a huge mess)! So, if you are looking for something to do with your kids while stuck at home, or perhaps you are a preschool teacher and want to do an educational activity with the little ones, then I suggest you raid your kitchens and pantries and set up a mini kitchen for your little cooks.

{All images by @sweetpea}

While you can use anything that is safe to consume (just in case curios little minds feel like giving their gloop a taste) as your ingredients, I put the following into little cups, jugs and spoons:

• Flour
• Corn starch
• Sugar
• Lentils
• Dry popcorn
• Rice
• Coffee
• Dried coconut
• Sugar
• Water
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Vinegar
• An egg

I place all of the above on a kid's sized table and added a pot and wooden spoon to the utensils and ingredients. Then I let my son go wild and he used his own initiative to mix his ingredients as he went along. In our case, the egg went first (he couldn't wait to crack that shell)!

Eventually we got to the point where the vinegar and bicarb mixed and our soup began to "boil". My son's face lit up with glee and watched as the bubbles sizzled and almost boiled over! This is the science bit! I explained to him that sometime ingredients react with each other to create something new, which in this case was the bubbles.

Kiddo was super stoked that he finally got to add some coffee to the mix, since it is something he never gets to have. He had a tiny bit to taste and I think it is safe to say he won't be asking for it again - it's not his cup of tea!

Apart from pouring ingredients from container to container. We also felt the different ingredients and spoke about their textures and whether they were hard or soft. We distinguished between what was dry and what was wet too!

This was an all round fun and stimulating activity that passed a good amount of time. Once we were done we headed to the real kitchen to wash our very dirty and sticky dishes (more time passed there)! And after that, it was bath time! My son and I were both full of sticky lentels and corn starch. 

We ended the afternoon off with a cup of warm tea and one of our favorite movies: Dinosaur. Just another #beautiful Sunday!

Much love - @sweetpea

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