If you want to be forever blowing (enormous!) bubbles, check out this handy how-to from the Royal Institution, which tells you how to carry out your own fun science project at home.
Follow the simple video guide and your kids will be creating bubbles that will put the soap-and-wand sets from the corner shop to shame. And because this is the Royal Institution, there's an educational message in there, too!
You will need
- Dish soap and water
- Glycerin (you can buy this at the chemist)
- Bubble wands (you can make these out of many everyday items, like a biscuit shaper or even a bent pipe cleaner)
- Drinking straws, preferably of varying thickness
This concoction will make regular sized bubbles and give you a chance to talk about the science behind bubbles with your child, observing the effects that different straws and wands have on the size and shape of the bubbles you produce.
When you're ready to make the kind of enormous bubbles you often see street performers creating on your local high street, you'll need two sticks (in the video, wooden spoons are used as a substitute), string to form a triangle between them, and a key to slide onto the string and act as a weight. Don't worry if it sounds confusing, the video makes it clear!
Download a helpful giant soap bubble fact sheet here.