Science

I am a science student, however science never excited me. For me, it was just school work (though I was good at school work). Ever since Angel is born, I have started looking at things with a different perspective. She started talking very early. After the initial string of "What is this?" questions, she started questioning things with "Why is this?". Its amazing to see how mundane things can excite a child. She would see a teddy bear in the spots of a fulka or a sheep in the clouds.

Her banging things and listening to corresponding sounds with interest made me try a Jaltarnag with her.

She wanted to know from where plants come, made us sow methi/fenugreek seeds which are found in the kitchen of most of the Indian households. She would remind me to water the pot and notice the progress each day. That taught her patience. I made paranthas out of our labor of love and Angel ate relished those as she had grown it herself!

When we moved to Toronto and it started snowing, she wanted to know that why there is so much snow on the footpaths but none on the main road and we tried melting the snow with salt experiment. To make it more interesting we added food color and little surprises to look for when we dig the ice.
We also placed 2 ice cubes in a separate bowl to observe the time they take to melt without the salt.

And looking at her interest, we have been trying some science experiments at home (with minimal ingredients and time). We tried this classic baking soda and vinegar experiment. I also added some food color to create colorful bubbles. The science behind it is simple - mixing them together generates carbon dioxide and hence the fuzzy bubbles. And she was thrilled. She wanted to try it with water and she noticed that nothing happened. I was preparing for the tempering in daal/lentil soup along with this so had hing/asafoetida in my hand and she wanted to try with that and we did to see what happens. Although she might not understand the actual science behind it, just the awareness of the fact that one thing when mixed with another has a different reaction is enough for me and she marvels at it. Not to the forget the fun she has!

So we tried another variant with the same ingredients to make baking soda and vinegar painting. For this you need a good amount of baking soda spread over a plate. a few different colors (water colors/tempera/food colors) mixed with vinegar in separate bowls and a dropper/syringe(without needle)/spoon. Using the dropper/syringe/spoon sprinkle the colored vinegar over the baking soda and see the fuzzy reactions. She tried using all three and below is the end product.

After doing it for sometime, she started to do the classic way again. After some more time, she mixed everything and that led to a mess. She loved the mess part the most, of course!

Angel loves snow. She also used to eat bits of snow with her friends in the day care. So we created artificial snow at home (not for eating). It was naturally cold and fluffy making it more realistic. The best part is that it requires just two ingredients - baking soda and shaving cream which most people already have at hand.

You need baking soda in a container or a sensory bin. I used one medium sized packet of baking soda and half a bottle of shaving cream. When shaving cream is mixed slowly with the baking soda, cold snow can be felt. I don't know exactly why it is like that, but it is! Angel also added some glitter to it, just for fun and she had a blast making snow balls and snow man. Since it was baking soda, she demanded vinegar and she had a blast making bubbles again!

Next we tried milk, food coloring and dish soap experiment. As the name suggests, it requires three simple ingredients - milk, food colors and dish washing liquid along with an ear-bud. You have to watch this video for that. It kept her busy for a long time.

We tried another variant of the same thing using water and black pepper which created the similar effect.

While looking for science experiments for Angel, I came to know about "Ivory" soap which floats in water, because of its high air content. I got a pack of three from dollar store and we did this experiment. Since I had spare soap, I let her put the soap in water and it floated, while the regular soap sank. I would not try this activity with the wet soap (as I am not sure about the results)

Its so quick and easy and it yields such fascinating results.You just have to place the Ivory soap in a microwave safe bowl, put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and watch the magic. My kitchen had such nice smell after this! A word of caution though - The bowl would be quite hot, so be careful with small children. Also, this will work only with the Ivory soap and no other brand because of it high air content as mentioned earlier. If other brand is used, it may burn and ruin your microwave. 

Angel was fascinated to see a soap convert into a cloud (in her own words). It was fluffy and powdery and she had a great time making the mess thereafter!

She loves raisins and I had told her that raisins are dried grapes after which she started enjoying grapes as much too. So, it was time to show her, how grapes are dried raisins. We just took five grapes and left them in a bowl. It is a very slow process and for about 7-10 days nothing much will happen, after that the grapes will start to become squishy and brown, gradually the juice will dry up and finally raisins could be seen. The whole process took around one and a half months months which again taught us patience - lots of it.

Day 40 was yesterday, so we are almost there!

We also got a chance to visit a science exhibition last weekend and spent good 4-5 hours there. Angel had a blast there and wanted to stay for some more time, even though she had missed her nap. I will write about her experience there, maybe some other time. I will also try to write about the other scienc-ey activities we do at home.

She loves these experiments and demands more from time to time. And guess who is learning science again, the correct way this time?!