1st week of advent - Festival of Stones

We lit our first light of Advent on our advent wreath we make together last Sunday.

We've been making crystals and geodes.

Our geodes are still in progress.  This is what we did.  

Materials
Epsom salts
2 cups warm water
eggshell halves
food colouring

1. Spoon epsom salts into the warm water until no more will dissolve.
2. Add food colouring to the solution.
3. Pour this solution into the eggshell halves and leave the water to evaporate(This will take a few days).
4. When the water has evaporated you have made your own geodes!

To make the snowflakes and stars we used borax and water.  See this post on how to make them.

For this crystal we used washing soda and water.

Mix two cups of water and one-half cup of washing soda in an old pot. Heat the water until it simmers, stirring to dissolve the soap. Pour this solution into a large drinking glass.

Cut a pipe cleaner into three pieces and twist them to form a star. Tie one end of a piece of thread to one leg of the star and the other end of the thread to the middle of a pencil or a second length of pipe cleaner. Make the distance between the pipe cleaner snowflake and the pencil such that when the snowflake is put in the glass the bottom is 1/2 inch above the bottom of the glass. Insert the pipe cleaner snowflake into the washing soda solution and set the glass in a cool location where it won't be disturbed for several hours to overnight.

And I bought this sweet little tree as a gift for the boys.  It has been magical to watch this tree blossom in a matter of hours.