Children are curious by nature. You can’t stop them from exploring the world. They will always find stuff to experiment with. And their innate curiosty leads them to bombard us with a million questions.
To occupy their perpetually inquisitive minds, you can do science experiments using materials you already have at home. Don’t worry. You don’t need a PhD in biology or chemistry. The list of activities I will suggest are very easy and fun to do.
Let’s start with making a lava lamp. You can make your very own lava lamp by mixing vegetable oil and water. Then, you add some salt to make the oil move. Customize it with a drop of food coloring. You can even combine different colors depending on what your kids like.
Next on the list is making an invisible ink. Let your kids write their secret message on paper using lemon juice. Their message will only be seen when the paper is close to a heat source (parental supervision required!). To make it more fun, you can hide their favorite snacks. Leave clues in using invisible ink, and they can only find their snacks when they decode the secret message.
Lemon juice is not just for secret messages. You can also use it to polish dull pennies. Give those pennies a quick soak in a bowl of lemon juice, and the acid will bring back their luster. If you don’t have lemons available, vinegar is a good alternative.
The internet is full of other science experiments that are perfect for kids. Not only can you can use them to teach how elements react to one another, but you can also use them to teach other life skills.
Want your children to learn how to measure ingredients? Homemade slime is easy to make and so much fun to play with when done.
Want to encourage them to play outside? Look on the internet for easy-to-make paper airplanes.
Would they benefit from a lesson in patience? Plant some seeds and watch the seedlings sprout.
The websites below offer more detail and links to the activities I’ve mentioned … plus so many more that would be fun for the whole family!
