A few days ago the Jim and the boys made their own fossils using plastic dino skeletons, sand, and plaster of Paris. Over the weekend we finished the project, removing the sand to reveal the fossil impressions. Jim began by carefully sliding the fossil “cake” out of the bowl, supporting it with his hand as [...]
Daegan found this video recently: He’s watched it several times, and wanted to try it at home. He drew the instructions, and made a list of supplies to get (plaster of Paris from Michaels, and play sand from Canadian Tire; we had everything else): They began by putting sand in a large plastic bowl, [...]
This afternoon the boys and I attended another Mad Science workshop organized by a homeschooling Mom, as we so enjoyed the one on dry ice and the states of matter a few months back. This time the topic was polymers. Here’s the pictorial diary of events (hover mouse over pics for details): The instructor began [...]
My friend Sarah sent me this simple science video: The boys and I gave it a whirl today, with a few variations. If you try this at home, we found it worked better if you put the food colouring closer together, overlapping or even on top of one another. I didn’t do this. Now, add [...]
For a couple weeks now the boys have been expressing an interest in Ancient Egypt, our first foray into people history, rather than that of dinosaurs and animals. Yay! Admittedly, it was Daegan who first brought up the topic, after Jim mentioned a show about dinosaur finds in Egypt, and got the companion book for [...]
Jim did a couple of really simple science activities with the boys on the weekend, using just ice cubes, salt, and string. He emptied an ice cube tray into a large bowl, and then put one cube in each of the boys’ blue bowls, along with a piece of string, asking: “How can I use [...]
After we completed the dancing craisins experiment, Daegan had an idea for an additional activity: “Let’s put the dancing craisins in the freezer!” When I asked him why he wanted to do this—as I must admit I thought little of the idea—he said, “I’m curious what happens to bubbly [carbonated] water when it’s frozen.” So [...]
Here’s another simple science experiment to try at home. This one is so easy and safe to do, my 5- and 7- year old did it completely on their own. You’ll need 5 raisins (or, in our case, craisins, as that’s what we had in the cupboard): A can of club soda, freshly opened and [...]
Last Friday night the boys and I did a simple experiment with water and different shaped containers to understand better the nature of science. The idea for the experiment was inspired by an experiment in the Oxford First Book of Science. Specifically, I wanted them to understand the idea of a reasoned hypothesis: in most [...]
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Jim did a neat science experiment with the boys on Sunday night, building on an experiment I did with them last year. I loved the simplicity of this experiment, and that it uses items most folks have at home already. Here’s what you’ll need: a large (mixing) bowl, [...]