Make Your Own Kinetic Sand

When my daughter was younger, like a lot of kids, she was really into sensory experiences. We made cloud dough and colored rice and pasta, and SO much homemade playdough I actually wrote multiple blog posts about it (this one was our favorite, except maybe the chocolate one, which I think I shared recently in a Valentine’s Day post).

One of her favorite things that I didn’t make was kinetic sand. Purchased kinetic sand is like regular sand, but it’s been coated with silicone oil, which gives the sand viscoelasticity. Which is a fancy science word for something that flows when not under pressure, but becomes a sort of rubbery solid under stress.

If you want to read more about the science of kinetic sand, check out this post from Live Science.

It’s not actually that hard to make kinetic sand at home, though I never tried it because we had plenty of the store-bought stuff.

There’s a recipe for a relatively small quantity at Crafty Morning, that combines the sand with an ingredient of a similar texture you’ll have to click over to read about.

If you want to make kinetic sand for a crowd, the Minnesota Children’s Museum has a bigger volume recipe that’s given in parts, so you can scale it up to fill a kiddie pool or down for a couple of kids to play with.

And how do you play with it? Kids won’t need a lot of instruction, you just squish it and mold it and see what happens. Cookie cutters and small, fillable molds are great to use with kinetic sand, as well as plastic knives, spoons, silicone baking cups, any little things you might use in small world play. If you have stamps like you would use with play dough that’s another great option.

[Photo: Crafty Morning.]

Leif Erikson Day is celebrated on Oct. 9, and it’s a great time to learn more about the Vikings and why we still remember Erikson all these years later.

If you don’t know about Leif Erikson (sometimes spelled Eriksson), he’s believed to have been born in Iceland, and is considered the first European to set foot on continental America, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a printable mini book about Leif Erikson and the Vikings for kids to read and color. It talks about who the Vikings were, what kind of ships they used, how they got to America and more. It’s a good overview for younger kids to use.

A good unit study is available from Simple Living Creative Learning, which includes a page where kids can write what they know, what they want to learn and what they learned through the unit, as well as information on the Vikings, longships, helmets, clothing and more.

Get a printable Viking unit study with reading passages, comprehension questions and other activities aimed at grades 4-8 from Creative Classroom Core at Teachers Pay Teachers. (And see more Vikings content from TPT here.)

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus has some great unit study ideas, too, including suggested books and videos. The post includes information about the Viking voyages, society, mythology and ships, as well as some vocabulary and a list of famous Vikings. While you’re over there also check out her free printable lapbook, which includes mini books on ships, a timeline, a Viking women coloring page, draw your own Vikings, geography, ancient runes and more.

Piqolo Kids has a lesson on Viking women with (available for purchase) worksheets about a day in the life of Viking women. Even if you don’t grab the printables there’s some good resources on that page and a link to a video on Viking women.

Learn how to draw a Viking ship with instructions from Drawing How to Draw, or grab Vikings coloring and labeling worksheets from Kids Puzzles and Games.

There’s a Leif Erikson Festival annually in Norway, Michigan, which you can learn more about here.

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