Kids’ Corner

Kids’ Corner BATH BOMBS

Make a unique present for friends and family this holiday season.

By Sari Custer, Chief Curiosity Officer at Arizona Science Center

What’s more fun than bathtub bubbles? Bath bombs have been around since 1989 and have recently found a resurgence in popularity. With this activity, you can customize all your scents and colors for custom science gift-giving!

SUPPLIES

• Silicone molds (soap/candy molds, muffin tins, or plastic eggs also work well) • Whisk • Mixing spoons • Wax paper • Large bowl • Small bowl • Measuring spoons • Measuring cups • Gloves • Eye protection • ¾ cup baking soda • ½ cup cornstarch • ½ cup powdered citric acid (buy online, at a local craft store, or local grocer with canning supplies) • ½ cup Epsom salt • ½ tablespoon water • 2½ tablespoon oil (coconut, olive, or other vegetable oil) • Optional: portable fan • Optional: 4 to 6 drops of food coloring (powdered food coloring works well) • Optional: 2 teaspoons skinfriendly scented essential oils (lavender, eucalyptus, rose, lemongrass, coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, peppermint … whatever you like! Available online or at your local craft store).

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put on your safety gear, including gloves and eye protection.

Powders can be irritating. 2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (baking soda, Epsom salt, citric acid, and cornstarch) and mix until combined and clump-free. 3. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients (oil, water, scented oil, and food coloring). If you use scented oil, stick to about two

teaspoons. Roughly five drops of food coloring work well, but feel free to mix up different pigments and experiment with the color. 4. Very slowly add the liquid to the dry mixture — about one teaspoon at a time. Use the whisk to mix as you go. Slow down if you start to see the mixture fizz. The final mixture shouldn’t clump together and should have the texture of damp sand. 5. Spread the mixture into the silicone molds (or plastic eggs) and press firmly until it is fully and evenly packed in each section. Depending on size, this can make about 10 bath bombs. 6. Place the packed molds in front of the blowing fan or just set them out to dry. This can take up to a day. 7. When your molds are set, flip them over and very gently press the fizzies out onto a piece of wax paper. If they start to crumble as you do this, flip them back over and let them continue

to set in the molds for a while longer. 8. Test them! Once the bath bombs are set, try one out by tossing it into a tub of water. What do you observe? 9. To gift them, gently wrap your bath bombs in decorative bags.

If the fizzy does crumble, have no fear! The mixture can be poured into a bath and produce the same great effects.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

The key ingredients here are citric acid (a weak acid) and baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate, a weak base). When the two ingredients are dry in their powdered form, they don’t react. But when you put the bath bomb into the tub, water causes the two key ingredients to mix, resulting in an acid-base reaction. Is there any change if you put the bath bomb in cold water versus hot water? How does the size of your bath bomb affect its fizziness? How does the color of the bath bomb affect the water?

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Cover Story

Shopping for Health Insurance? Start with The Eddington Group

More Americans have health insurance this year than at any time. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the national uninsured rate reached an all-time low of 8% in early 2022. Still, picking health insurance out of the hundreds of plans is hard.

That’s why many customers still rely on one-onone meetings with health insurance experts, who ask the right questions and guide them to the plan that’s best for their values, preferences, and health. And it’s the reason Dan and Alison Eddington still get calls every year from friends and family asking them which employer plan they should choose. The Eddington Group makes a tricky choice easier.

By Shay Moser

“There are so many options available right now that you can get overwhelmed,” says Dan Eddington. “It’s our job to advise people and make sure they have the best possible health insurance policy for themself and their family. And, honestly, everybody’s looking to save money during this crucial time.”

The Eddingtons have been advising individuals, families, and small businesses on health insurance since 2015. They started their business in Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to Norterra in 2019. They live in the Phoenix neighborhood with their children Londyn, 8, and Atlas, 3.

Alison is the first point of contact, collecting customers’ information. Dan fills in any blanks, does the research, and runs the numbers. Then the Eddingtons get together with their customers to review the health plan options, guiding customers step by step through the whole process of choosing a health plan efficiently. In the end,

their customers choose a health plan faster with less stress and better results.

“People can trust us,” says Dan. “We’re a local family who can show customers how we use our health plan, and then we help get them their best possible health insurance policy.”

ONE CALL AWAY

When someone becomes a customer of The Eddington Group, they get Alison’s and Dan’s cell phone numbers. If they need a new doctor, have a dental or vision-related question, are in an emergency, or have a benefit that needs to pay out, to name a few, customers call the Eddingtons.

“They can always call us, and we mitigate many questions by our upfront process,” says Dan.

While people can call customer service, the Eddingtons get to know their customers, gather, and assess their needs and budget, and learn why particular coverage is important to them.

“You can call and get a person who answers the phone but doesn’t know your name. They can give you an answer but have no real knowledge of who you are,” says Alison.

Just like a full-service group, the Eddingtons coordinate with the insurance company on their customers’ behalf.

IN STEP WITH THE ABCS OF HEALTH INSURANCE

Most of the issues in the eight years the Eddingtons have been in the health insurance industry haven’t been from individuals being missold. They say people didn’t understand what they bought because they weren’t educated about it.

“We help our customers understand their health insurance policy,” says Alison. “We also continue to educate ourselves when things change — a new policy here, a new program there. We have a large network of resources to learn about health insurance changes so we can inform our customers if special rules or exceptions are relevant to them.”

Plus, the Eddingtons don’t throw around unfamiliar terminology.

“We make sure our customers know what we’re talking about,” says Alison. “Instead of saying deductible this, co-pay that, out-of-pocket this, and max that, we explain what these terms mean.”

FINDING THE BEST OVERALL PLAN

A problem currently happening with many group insurance policies is employers want to provide a good policy for employees but contribute only to the cost for the employee. So, when the employee adds their family to the policy, they must pay full price for them, which often makes the health insurance plan unaffordable.

“We’ve met some families that are paying thousands of dollars a month for their health coverage,” Dan says. “A lot of people go without insurance because it’s too expensive.”

The Eddingtons are committed to providing their customers with a policy that’s going to perform better for less. They want to get customers from a restrictive network to an unrestrictive network, as well as help them keep all their doctors, and stay at the level of care they need.

“Some people have prescriptions that are thousands of dollars a month,” says Dan. “We can get them connected with an affordable prescription program. There are thousands of circumstances we can handle for customers.”

The Eddingtons can recommend plans on or off the exchange. This gives them the flexibility to truly serve customers without restriction.

“We have more options than the average agent,” says Dan, “and save our customers a tremendous amount of money.”

In cases where the Eddingtons can’t help a customer, Dan says, “It doesn’t matter to us if we’re not personally writing the policy. We care about what the person needs and will steer them to the right place.”

CONTINUING SUPPORT

Once the Eddingtons help their clients choose a plan, and set up the coverage, they don’t consider their work done. They hope to assist customers with filing claims, solving any issues that come up later, and renewing or changing the policy next year.

“We want to stick with our customers for as long as possible,” says Dan. “We hope to become people’s lifetime agents.”

The training and licensing process the Eddingtons acquired equipped them to be effective, flexible, and reliable to the average person seeking health insurance coverage.

And while they have customers across the U.S., the Eddingtons enjoy being the trusted source for health information in Norterra and the surrounding community — and they love referring the doctors they go to in the area.

Call 602-833-7254 or visit eddingtongroup.com to get in touch with them.

This content is sponsored by The Eddington Group. Norterra Residents