DD (7) would like to do some science in the holidays

[GrossMeister]

I'm at a loss for ideas, in previous holidays we've done the mentos/diet coke, vinegar/bicarb volcano, dying flowers via stems and mixing coloured water in pots using kitchen roll.

She was really taken with electronics when they did some circuits at school, and I would absolutely love to encourage this, but all the kits I've seen online are £££

Any suggestions please? :)

Get a red cabbage and shred it in some water. Whizz it a bit with a hand blender and sieve so you have a jug of lovely, dark purple liquid. This is a universal indicator and you can add liquids to it and note the colours it goes - Red for acids, blue for alkaline. Really fun and visual even if you don't go into the science behind it!

Minecraft has some circuitry built in if you don't mind her playing a game. It's around £20 on the computer or £17 on Playstation/Xbox. Don't get the iPad/tablet version, it doesn't have the circuit stuff in.

Mixing oil, water and vinegar can be quite fun. You can try other kinds of acid too to see what happens. And boil up I think it's red cabbage, and you get a PH tester.

www.planet-science.com/ is brilliant and has loads of experiments to do at home for different ages.

Snibston discovery park if you're in the midlands, great fun.

Science experiments you can eat

www.mamamiss.com/2014/08/09/grow-crystals-in-a-jar/. Grow crystals in a jar. Plato to play dough site has lots of science experiments.

Different black inks (felt tip type) on coffee filter paper with a tab of the paper dipped into water, as the water is absorbed moves past the ink it will seperate it into all the different colours used to make up the black. You can see how the different brands are made of different colours. One of the more memorable simple science experiments we did at school.
Growing crystals of some kind?
Fossil collecting on the beach?

www.education.com/activity/article/make_a_battery/
www.education.com/activity/article/potato-power/
www.education.com/activity/article/static_electricity_lightening/
learningideasgradesk-8.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/static-electricity-activities-for-kids.html

A day at Techniquest if you're anywhere near Cardiff.

Have a look at the Royal Institute website (they do the Christmas Lectures series) - they have just launched a whole lot of family science projects, with films about how to do them. Enjoy!
www.rigb.org

Would some coding interest her? Loads of coding websites for kids these days.

My first thought was the bicarb volcano but I see you've done that. Secret writing with lemon juice? You use the lemon juice as an ink, write with it and when it's heated up it it reveals the written message.
chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/invisibleink3.htm

Gloop is good fun, I made it with a 7yo and 10yo charge, 10yo was designated film-maker (he refused to touch the gloop!) but we had fun for hours. Basically cornflour, water and a little food colouring if you want it. Mix it up and play with the gloop. It'll harden under pressure, but melt into your hands as soon as the pressure has gone.

My DD did some workshops with this kit. It was excellent and you got a fair amount of kit for £13.50.

Wow these are all fab, loads of stuff I'd never even considered, thank you! :)

We've got an usbourne book - science things to make and do. It's a bit young maybe but they might make an older version?

Make your own butter!

See this video for instructions and the simple science behind it.

I did it with a year three class quite recently, and they really loved it. Lovely satisfying experiment, and you can then enjoy your creation spread on some fresh bread!

I've used this Usborne science book (100 Science Experiments) with ages 7+
www.usborne.com/catalogue/book/1~S~SAE~1894/100-science-experiments.aspx
Lots of ideas to do at home.

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/teaching_resources.aspx

My daughter is also 7 and loves these guys:

www.madscience.org

She goes to both the Summer and Easter camp, and does the Christmas ad hoc events if she can. They have an absolute ball, making loads of mess, doing experiments and learning while they don't even realise they're doing. Can't recommend highly enough.

DS2 really enjoys electronics and Maplin is your friend for buying kits!
For Christmas I got him some kits like this or thisthey were on 3 for 2, not sure if they still are though.
Or his favourite was a plug and play electronics kit with about 50 experiments in it that cost less than 20, also from Maplin. After the first couple of experiments he was happy to sit there and follow the instructions himself, DH then checked his wiring before he switched it on. They started simple - lighting LEDs and went onto making a radio etc.

sorry if duplicating - not had a chance to read the other replies

chromatography with coffee filter paper

ice bergs - ice cubes in water to see how much is above and below the surface. my 2 also then liked me putting the ice cube into hot water and watching it melt (with all the little fuzzy currents around it as it did)

egg in vinegar so shell goes soft

disclosing tablets on her teeth so she can see how well teeth brushing works (I remember finding this fascinating)

dirty coin in coca cola - cleans it beautifully

food colouring in vase with white flowers in it as they will soak up the colour and petals will change colour

Electric wiring kits are fun, see www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CIXVITO

I also have a DD (7), she loves measuring and mixing random kitchen liquids and powders to see what happens.

Ds loves choosing from these:
www.physics.org/marvinandmilo.asp

All with stuff generally found in the home, with child friendly explanations. The peanut in lemonade 'lava lamp' went down well the other day.

Science museum do a science show every summer hols

Ooh, you could try the thing where you heat the air inside a glass bottle (I think this involved a small fire inside it, Google is your friend here) then put a hardboiled egg on the top, as the air inside cools, the volume decreases and it sucks the egg into the bottle. Very cool, pretty sure you wouldn't be able to get the egg back out though!

Where do you live? If you live near a major city, then I think most will have a day's worth of (free!) science educations/entertainment - Manchester Museum of Science and Industry is brilliant. The world museum in Liverpool has an excellent planetarium. Of course, London and Birmingham have loads too. Places that charge, but have lots of hands on stuff and might be a nice treat are Catalyst in Widnes (www. catalyst.org.uk) (5 for kids, 6 for adults), Eureka (www.eureka.org.uk/ is more expensive (12 I think), but a ticket is valid for a year).

These look good, might do some with my DDs.