My six-year-old wants to do “experiments” at home. So far they have just involved putting leaves, nuts, rocks, and other things he’s found outside in a bowl of water and watching the water get dirty.
In the interest of nurturing his curiosity I’d like to help him do some inexpensive make-at-home science. Anyone know of any good source of ideas for this - books, web sites, or anything else?
One of the safest forms of home experimentation is food science. A lot of fun and physics can be learned from gelatin, corn starch, vegetable oil, milk, eggs, etc. google for these words and “experiment”; you’ll find lots of cool things for him to do.
Bkaing soda and vinegar! If you have a glass measuring cup like what is used for liquid measurements, put about a tablespoon of baking soda in the bottom. Light a candle. Add a little bit of vinegar, maybe around 2 tablespoons, quickly. It will start foaming and sizzling. The gas it gives off is carbon dioxide. It is heavier than air, so it will stay in the cup. When the reaction is done, pick up the cup and pour “air” onto the candle. The candle will go out! That is because it displaces the air and the candle goes out! Fun stuff!
You can get a birdfeeder since winter is coming up. Sunflower seeds are great entertainers, and you can get a bird book and keep track of what you see.
Save a few sunflower seeds from that and put them in a bag with a folded up wet paper towel. Leave it on a bright and sunny window. They will start to germinate and grow. About a week after they first appear, you can pot them or plant them in the yard. Your child can watch the easily-cared for sunflowers grow!
Get food coloring and play. Teach him how to mix colors-- you wouldn’t imagine how many of my classmates, seniors in high school, don’t know what colors make what. Fill up a jar with water, and put in a drop of different food colorings. Red and yellow make orange, blue and yellow make green, and red and blue make purple. It’s a really fascinating thing for a six-year-old to do!
Living with Young Children and Loving It is a book that my mom highly reccommends, as well as Mr. Wizard’s Science Secrets. She says that you should go to the library and ask the librarian for help, they are more than happy to help young children learn! There are tons of books to check out. She also reccommends Discover Stores as a source for expensive but good experiments, some of which can be replicated at home.
You can look for photosensitive paper. It is sold in science-oriented children’s stores. The paper is blue, and you put it out in the light with leaves, keys, flowers, etc. on top of it, and let it sit out for a few minutes. The exposed paper turns white while the covered up parts remain blue. You then quickly bring the paper inside and place in a tray of water. The colors reverse, with the white turning blue and vice versa. After you dunk it, it stabilizes, leaving an outline picture of whatever you put on it.
Another easy one is disappearing ink. Take a sheet of paper and have your son write a secret message with a brush on it in lemon juice. Let it dry and then bring it to the ironing board. Go over it a few times with an iron on low heat and the message will appear! The juice browns on the paper and reveals whatever was written.
If I can think of any later, I will post them. Here’s to raising a Nobel Prize winner!
http://www.fatlion.com/science/
http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/
Here are a couple of links. There are tons of of sites for experiments you can do at home. Just google terms like: kids, home, sceince experiments.
One of our own run amasci.com
Great site with lots of ideas too.