It has been a record-setting summer here. Temperatures are soaring, sending me in search of some creative ways to keep cool. Treasure ice blocks! This fun idea took a couple of days to plan and prepare for, but it kept the kids occupied outside for at least an hour. I had previously frozen two ice blocks for the kids with treasures inside and a bit of food coloring. Many of the treasures were toys we had around the house, but I did buy a few irresistible items to add to the mix like a dinosaur and some swimming pool bracelets. I set the blocks up under the umbrella on our deck but the kids quickly decided they would get to their treasures sooner if they moved the blocks to the sun.
I wanted the treasures to be distributed evenly throughout the ice and so I froze it in layers, adding food coloring here and there. The kids had squirt bottles to
fill with water and use to melt the ice. We tried adding salt to the ice
blocks as well and it did speed it up a bit, but it wasn't happening
fast enough to hold small attention spans and so our next tool was
spoons.
You can see the spoons were doing the trick! Of course, Ben had to taste his ice block and he seemed to like the texture of it. I'm not sure how effective this method was at getting to the treasures, however.
Now here is why I'm afraid I won't be able to use this activity again, at least for awhile. Bree soon did something unexpected with her ice block. She picked it up and smashed it, hard, onto the deck. This action got her some speedy results, so she helped her brother do it, too. So much for my all-morning cool activity! The blocks were smashed, the treasures retrieved, and all that left was a bucket of water to splash around in.
