When the Wind Blows

Nowadays, we enjoy the convenience of email correspondence, but those electronic messages lack the warmth and personality of an old-fashioned letter. To encourage your kids to keep writing, help your child make special paper on which to write notes for grandparents and special friends.

Here's a project where "your wind" (breath) makes a bubbly solution to print designs on paper. Help your child mix water and liquid dish detergent in several bowls and then add different food coloring to each bowl. Now come the fun part: Use straws to blow into the bowls, creating bubbles along the surface. (Be sure to teach your younger children how to blow out—and not suck the soapy water in.) Carefully lay a sheet of white paper over the bubbles to see the delicate bubble print. Overlap the bubble prints and patterns by laying the sheets over several bowls of different-colored bubbles. Let your paper dry thoroughly. Then have fun writing your letters—just think: creativity with both words and art!