Kids Wednesday: Epsom Salt Paint Science Experiment

 Here is a great idea for homemade paint out of things that you probably have already around the house (or are cheap to get).  I was interested because we often decide we want to do something crafty at the last minute so I have to get creative on what we are going to do.  This is good because I can throw it together whenever my son decides to paint. We had colored sticks from the dollar store so I put out paper towel with our paper cups.  My son matched the food coloring with the stick and put them in front of the cups.

We have been working on things that dissolve (stay tuned for homemade lemonade).  This was showing how the epsom salts dissolved in the hot water.  I heated the water up on the stove and poured 1 cup into the glass measuring cup next to my son's set up.

My son had to pick the measuring cup that made the epsom salt equal to the amount of water that I measured.  This can be done in many different measuring amounts but I made a cup because we decided to make all four colors for the food coloring that we had.  One cup might have been a little much so make what you think your kids will use.

We worked together to measure our one cup but it was mostly me because it was a little hard to measure.

He added the epsom salt to the water slowly.  As you can see, some didn't make it in the cup but easily picked up with the paper towel.

Then my son mixed with his plastic spoon but I don't think that it was super necessary but it helped so that he could see and feel that the epsom salt was dissolved.

I poured a little bit of the solution in the three cups.  This is what was leftover in the measuring cup.  There was a little that didn't mix but for the most part it was a solution.

My son added two drops of red and then stirred with the color stick.

My son added two drops of blue and then stirred with the color stick.

My son added two drops of green and then stirred with the color stick.

Here are the finished paints which we thought looked pretty good!!

We tested the paint and decided that we didn't have the colors bright enough so I squeezed more food color and my son stirred.  I don't know if you can see the

The recipe is really easy and the final result is at least an hour of fun if not more! We put the plastic table cloth down and set to work with all the painting.

The product is also really fun.  My son used all different kids of papers so that we could see how the paint reacted to the different surfaces.

The other great thing is that if you wait and make it with your kids, they can guess what is going to happen when you put the solid epsom salt into the water.  Most young kids won't guess that it dissolves so you might amaze them.  It opens the conversation that you can have about liquid solutions and how some things dissolve and others don't.  Try it with sugar, salt and sand to see what happens.  Great to have a art project turn into a science project!!

Materials:

• Variety of paper or Construction Paper (lightweight paper will curl up as the paint dries)  
• Epsom Salt 
• Water
• Food coloring (optional)
• Paint brushes of various sizes (will wash out of the brushes but don't use your best brushes)
• Small jars or plastic cups or paper cups

Directions for white paint:

1. Pour one cup of boiling water into your jar or plastic cup.
2. Add 1 cup of epsom salt, and stir until it completely dissolves.
3. Paint your designs onto any paper.

For Colored Paints, add drops of food coloring to the water before adding the epsom salt.