I am a worker. I own a business, and as much as I love my kids – I will be the first to admit – the thought of them being home for two weeks from school puts a little scare in me about what in the WORLD can I do with them to keep them busy (busy meaning from beating on each other). They are brothers… one is 4 and one is 5 and the 30% of the time that they love each other is always followed by 50% of the time making each other angry and the last percentage split between eating and sleeping.
My 5 year old last night says “MOM?” me…. “yes Eric” – can we have a CRAFT DAY tomorrow?
OMG… in my mind I’m saying WT bleep am I going to do. I am NOT a crafter and the thought of painting in the house when it’s cold out terrifies me. Reluctantly I answer “Sure Eric…I’ll figure up something.” I immediately search online for something that I personally might enjoy so that I don’t have to hide my dislike of the word crafts.
I FOUND IT!
SCIENCE MEETS ART
What you need: 
Milk (2% or whole milk work best), a shallow dish, food coloring, and dish soap.
1. Fill the shallow dish with just enough milk to cover the bottom.
2. Have your kids pick 2 or 3 colors of food coloring and have them drip dots into the milk.
3. Pour a small amount of dish soap in one of two spots and watch the transformation happen. It is beautiful and the kids eyes are so focused on all of the color changes and swirling going on.
Things to talk about: Mixing colors to make new colors, movement, finding things (like finding shapes in clouds), and blow lightly on it when it is done and talk about wind and how it makes waves and currents.
Take photos of the art and use them for coffee mugs, keychains… and it can be a conversation anytime!
Have fun!!!!
Jeanine Thurston 
wow… do you think it is possible to make this kind of artwork on canvas ?
LikeLike
I would do it, then photograph it & then print it on canvas! It would look beautiful!
LikeLike
Sure. But I’m a painter… It would be fun to find a replacement for the milk… that could dry into the canvas without the old milk smell:)
LikeLike
Instead of Milk you could use shaving cream/foam…I do this for fabric art and paper creation too. I put the shaving cream in the tray and some drops of dye (i use fabric dye cos it is permanent) but food coloring would work too. We use skewers to make the patterns and then place the item to be decorated on top,pressing down lightly to make sure it is all covered than when you take it out use a ruler to wipe off the excess shaving cream/foam. Not only does it look good but smells and feels great too!!
LikeLike
CUTE! Is is bad that I would push the kids aside and spend hours photographing the gorgeous shapes and colours. So pretty and such a great idea!
LikeLike
I used to do this when I volunteered for a childrens science program – we used to let them add the dye and dish-soap, and then used nice cartridge paper, laying it over the tray with the milk carefully, and then lifting it off again and when it dries it makes a really awesome piece of art, and if left out over night somewhere with a good air-flow, it dries without all that much of an old-milk smell! We often used scented dishwash (Watermelon was popular, or the Lavender one) which helps mask it as well.
LikeLike