Last week I showed you how to start a ginger bug. I know I promised I’d have the strawberry soda ready for today’s Sweet Saturday…but as usual, I didn’t do the math. 🤦‍♀️ You give the ginger bug five days. Then, once you add the strawberry purée, it needs two more days to ferment. And then you have to taste it. If it’s not quite right, you wait another couple of days. So here I am with a deadline for Sweet Saturday, not Sweet Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. Still, it’s the perfect setup for a strawberry soda homeschool science activity that families could use for both fun and learning.

While I love being in the kitchen and trying new things, let’s just say patience has never been my strong suit. And so this fermented strawberry soda recipe from Mary Bryant Shrader’s The Modern Pioneer Pantry has tested me in every way. We’re talking ten tablespoons of grated ginger, daily feedings, six cups of strawberries strained through a towel that’s now forever pink…and all that waiting.

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But as I’ve waited, I’ve thought about how much I wish I’d done something like this when my children were small. One of my great regrets is not homeschooling them. I didn’t trust myself to do it well, so I missed out on hours we could have spent learning together. A recipe like this would be perfect for homeschool families. (Mary herself did homeschool her own son, and he grew up great! ) This recipe and others in the book are full of natural teachable moments: chemistry in action, math in the measuring, patience in the waiting. And at the end of this particular recipe, kids get a sweet homemade soda to enjoy. (One that doesn’t cost at least $2.50 per can…have you priced these things in the store?)

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How Homeschool Families Could Use This Strawberry Soda Science Activity

That’s what makes Shrader’s book so special. The Modern Pioneer Pantry isn’t just about food. It’s about slowing down, learning, and savoring life together. If you’re a homeschooling parent looking for hands-on lessons, this recipe could be a wonderful activity:

• Science & Chemistry: Watching the ginger bug grow, noticing the carbon dioxide foam, and asking why fermentation needs darkness and warmth.
• Math Skills: Measuring tablespoons, fractions, and conversions while cooking. (Bonus points if you teach your kids to be better at math than I am. I clearly needed the help!)
• Nature & History: Strawberries dyeing a towel pink leads into lessons on natural dyes used throughout history. (Also, I like pink!)
• Character Lessons: The patience of waiting days for something delicious to develop.
• Faith Connections: For Christian families, a reminder that God’s timing is not ours, and that He remains at work in ways we may not always see.

Here’s Mary Bryant Shrader’s Fermented Strawberry Soda recipe, reprinted with permission from her publisher:

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This recipe from The Modern Pioneer Pantry is delicious on its own, but it also doubles as a strawberry soda homeschool science activity. It can be a way to teach chemistry, math, and patience. Education that ends with a sweet reward.

(P.S. My own soda is still bubbling away. I’ll update this post once I’ve tasted mine and can tell you how it turned out!)

UPDATE: I bottled and tasted my homemade soda today! It has a very strong ginger taste, but that’s fine by me…it tasted like a strawberry variation of my favorite ginger ale, Buffalo Rock. It’s hard to get Buffalo Rock outside of the South without paying a premium, but it’s the best. It leaves a sweet burn in your esophagus, which doesn’t sound delightful, but strangely is. 🙂