Rubbing Alcohol for kids? Well, yes, indeed! The new series of ‘party dolls’ as my 7 year old calls the latest range of Project MC2 dolls, all dressed up for the Maywood Glen art opening, involves dressed up characters with a new range of experiments to try out and enjoy.
We received the Camryn Coyle doll with the Tie Dye experiment.
Camryn comes with a handbag (with a much better design than previous ones, as it’s a bit larger and so easier to open) and shoes. Her dress is two parts – top and skirt – and the box contains three coloured permanent markers and a pipette.
To make the experiment work, you have to provide the Rubbing Alcohol or Surgical Spirits, and the item to be designed – they suggest white canvas shoes, but we used a white blouse.
You can see how the experiment worked in this video, or read on!
The experiment is fairly simple: Use the coloured markers to colour a design onto the material, then using the pipette drip the rubbing alcohol over it and the alcohol will cause the colours to run, creating a tie dye effect.
The ‘lesson’ in it is that water doesn’t budge coloured markers, but alcohol does and that we can use that knowledge to create fun art work.
As with all the Project MC2 experiments, they serve as a starting point for curious minds. They don’t provide in-depth science, which I kind of wish they did, but it’s easy enough to Google some information for kids who want to know more.
Camryn Coyle is available from Amazon and other leading toy retailers.
