To date, I have never come across a child (or an adult😊) who does not like experimenting. Letting a child experiment encourages your child to reason things out, think logically, learn new facts and also teaches an important lesson that in life you must try, and if at first you do not succeed, try again. So, today’s blog post is dedicated to helping you set up a science box with all the items you need to carry out these five simple experiments in your home.. Like... now! :)
Encourage your child to make observations when carrying out an experiment and to even make inferences about what they think might happen. Always supervise young children and have a camera close by. Videos of these experiments being carried out at our home can be found on my insta stories under the heading 'experiments'. (@my_monkeys_and_i). So let's get to it!
For our basic science box you will need the following:
- Bicarbonate of soda
- White vinegar
- Dish soap
- Water
- Paint or food colouring
- Plastic or glass cups
- Tray
- Spoon
- Funnel
- Plastic/ glass bottle
- Balloons
- Paper towels
- Bowl
- Milk
- Cotton Q- tip (what we commonly call ear buds)
- Raw egg
1. Volcano experiment
The first time we ever did this experiment was during Liam's dinosaur-themed birthday party and it is still his favourite experiment to date. Looking for a show and tell project? Check this out!
What you will need:
- A cup
- Vinegar
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Dish washing soap
- Paint or food colouring
A chemical reaction between vinegar and bicarbonate of soda creates carbon dioxide. This is the same gas used in soft drinks and it is what makes them bubble and froth.
Place a cup on a tray and fill it about half way with vinegar. Add food colouring or paint and stir. Squirt in some dish soap, stir, and slowly tip in about one spoon of the bicarbonate of soda and stir again. Should you want to incorporate this experiment into a play session, surround the cup with rocks, add some dinosaurs and hey presto you have got yourself a dino-land in no time!
Another variation of this would be to add a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into the individual compartments of an ice-cube tray. Then, ask your child to slowly add some drops of vinegar using a pipette. This is great for fine motor practice and the fun lasts a bit longer:)
2. Blowing balloon experiment
What you will need:
- a plastic/glass bottle
- vinegar
- bicarbonate of soda
- a balloon
- funnel
Using a funnel, pour 1/3 cup bicarbonate of soda into the balloon. Using the same funnel, pour around 1 cup of vinegar in the bottle. Attach the balloon to the top of the bottle and ask the child to lift the balloon so that the powder falls and the reaction begins.
3. Walking water
What you will need:
- 6 small glasses
- paper towels
- water
- food colouring or paint
In this experiment, water moves through a process called capillary action.
Place the six cups in a circle. Fill the 1st, 3rd and 5th cup with water. Add red colouring in one, blue in another and yellow in the other (in the cups that have been filled with water). Fold a paper napkin lengthwise and then lengthwise again. Place one side of the napkin in the cup with red colouring and the other side in the adjacent empty cup. Place another paper napkin in this empty cup and the other side in the cup with the yellow colouring and so on so forth. Refer to the picture or the video because it is a bit complicated to explain :) By time you can start to see the water walk up the napkins and after some hours the coloured water should end up in the empty cups. Ask your child to try and guess what colour the water is going to be in each cup.
4. Magic milk
What you will need:
- milk
- food colouring
- dish soap
- small bowl
- cotton q tip
- shallow dish
This is a fascinating experiment to introduce your child to the phenomenon of surface tension. Fill the dish with milk and add around 4 drops of food colouring. Using different colours gives a better effect (if doing so add 4 drops of each colour). Pour some dish soap in the separate small bowl. Dip the q tip in the dish soap and touch the milk with the same q tip. Watch the colours dance around.
5. Bouncy egg
What you will need:
- raw egg
- jar/ glass
- vinegar
Place the egg in a jar or glass and cover in vinegar. Leave the egg there for around 3 days. We left ours for 5 days to be extra sure :) You might want to cover the jar with a napkin because for some strange reason the egg started attracting fruit flies in our case.
When you remove the egg from the jar you will notice that the shell is completely gone. Rinse with warm water and watch the egg bounce as you drop it from a short height into a bowl. Note that the egg may still break especially if dropped from higher up. So always drop it into a container to be safe.
There you have it, five easy experiments to try at home! Minimal equipment needed and quick to set up. Now that is my kind of activity:)
Till next time!
Christina xxx
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