Balloons
Blow up a balloon, and tie it closed. Fill a second balloon half-way with water, and blow up the rest of the way, and tie it closed. Light a candle. Touch the first balloon (the one with no water), to the flame and see what happens. It pops, of course, because the rubber becomes hot and melts, so it can no longer contain the air pressure. Now hold the second balloon up, and hold to the flame, making sure the water is next to the fire, and see what happens. It doesn't pop! That's because the heat is transferred to the water, so the rubber doesn't heat up enough to melt!
Bowls
Use two bowls (one big, one small) from the kitchen to demonstrate centrifugal force.
Fill the large bowl halfway with water. Fill the small bowl with a small amount of water. Float the smaller bowl inside the larger one. Now stick in your finger, and spin the small bowl. The water in the spinning bowl will push up to the sides. It may even fly out. If you spin fast enough, the center of the small bowl will be dry.
The reason is centrifugal force. Spinning objects move away from the center around which they are spinning. That's a scientific law. The water only stays in place because the bowl contains it. Without containment, the water would spin away.
Ask your child why planets and stars, which are spinning constantly very fast, but have no containment, stay in place? Why don't they spin away? Why don't the nuclei in atoms blow them apart, since they are spinning without containment?
Now look up Colossians 1:17, "He [Jesus] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
Broken Crayons
Save up those little pieces of crayons that are too small to use. Have your children peel off all of the paper. Line a regular or a mini-muffin tin with wax paper and lightly press in various broken pieces of crayons. Put in a warm (250°F) oven. Watch carefully, and allow to melt together, but not turn completely to liquid. Take out of the oven carefully, and allow to cool without stirring. Pop out when cool, and peel off the wax paper. If using large muffin cups, you may wish to cut the large crayon into slices. Makes special super-duper "Rainbow" crayons for your children.
Cardboard Boxes
#1 Cut open a cardboard box and staple on a length of flannel for a homemade flannel board. Set on a chair for teaching, and store behind the couch or a dresser when not using. When it gets worn, pull out the staples and toss the flannel in the washer. Staple onto a fresh piece of cardboard and it's like new!
#2 Cut open a cardboard box and cover with butcher paper or paint for a display board for projects.
Celery
Add red or blue liquid food coloring to a glass of water. Make it pretty dark. Next, cut about 3 inches off the bottom of a stalk of celery, leaving the leaves intact. Add the celery to the water, cut side immersed. Check back after a few hours. The coloring moves up into the leaves! Cut the stalks to see a cross-section of the veins in the celery that deliver the water to the leaves.
Checkers
Try the following math games using a regular checker board and checkers:
HOMESCHOOL CHECKERS: Write math problems on 32 self-sticking circles (the kind used for garage sale tags), or you can use squares of paper. Tape over the black squares on the checkerboard. Play checkers the regular way, only the player must solve the math problem before being allowed to land on the square. If he makes a mistake, he must try again until he answers correctly before moving.
MATH JUMP: Using self-sticking circles or a permanent marker, write the numerals 1-12 on the checkers. Play the game according to regular checker rules, except that whenever a player wants to jump another checker, he must multiply (or add, for younger players) the two checkers--the one he is moving and the one he is jumping. For example, if the player is jumping a #2 checker with a #9 checker, he must say out loud, "9 x 2 = 18". If he jumps more than one checker, he must do each combination.
Cream
Make homemade butter. Put some extra heavy whipping cream, well chilled, into a tight sealing storage container, or plastic jar with screw on lid (don't use glass, as the child is likely to drop the jar when shaking). Child then shakes, shakes, shakes the cream. This takes some patience, but just when you think it will never work, it turns to butter all of a sudden. A little skim milk will be left over. Rinse with cool water, lightly salt if desired, and press into serving container.
Ask questions: Where does cream come from? Why doesn't regular milk turn to butter when we shake it? Why is some milk left over? You can build up a whole unit study of dairy production--pasteurization, homogenizing, marketing, etc.
Egg cartons
#1 Use an egg carton to reinforce numbers. Using a permanent marker, write numerals and dots on the inside of each cup. #1 with one dot, then #2 with two dots, # 3 with three dots, and so on until you have done the whole egg carton. Fill each cup with something fun to count, like pennies or buttons. For very young children, use something edible that the child won't choke on, such as Cheerios. Put one piece in the #1 cup, two pieces in the #2 cup, etc. Take out the items, and let your child replace, putting in the correct number of items for each cup. Take out combinations, and show your child that they are equal. For example, empty the cups for #2 and #3, and notice that it is the same amount of items as the cup for #5.
#2 Have you seen those Wordless Books put out by Child Evangelism Fellowship? These are terrific little books that tell the story of Jesus with no words and no pictures, using only pages with the following colors:
Gold = streets of gold in heaven, eternal life
Black = darkness, sin; separation from God and death
Red = the blood of Jesus Christ
White = forgiveness of sins through believing in Jesus
Green = growing in the Lord by obedience to Him
You can make Willie or Winona, the Witness Worm, who tells the same wonderful story, using egg cartons and construction paper!
Just cut the side of an egg carton, until you have a strip of five cups linked together. Glue on circles of construction paper in the colors of the Wordless Book, making sure the "head" is gold (gold wrapping paper or yellow construction paper with gold glitter). Draw a smiling face with crayon or permanent marker, to remind the children what a happy place heaven will be. (Note: our family likes to do a "blotchy" circle, using crumpled black construction paper with pencil marks on it, for "sin", instead of just plain black. This is to avoid confusion in regards to the races of people, and to help the children visualize specific things for which we need forgiveness.)
#3 Egg cartons make great plant starters, too. Just plant your seeds in soil in the cups and leave on the windowsill. When plants grow up a little, transfer to pots or the ground.
Flashlight
Fill a clear glass punch bowl with water and add about fifteen drops of milk. Shut off the lights, so it is completely dark, then shine a flashlight down into the bowl from the top. The water looks blue, because the light is filtered through the milk--just like when the sun shines through the atmosphere and makes the sky look blue.
Now shine it through the side. The milk scatters the colors of the light spectrum, just like air does, and leaves reds and oranges in the middle, just like a sunset. So now your child knows why the sky is blue!
NOTE: You may need to play around with the amount of milk to get it just right. It won't be a really deep blue or red-orange, like the sky, because a bowl is much shallower than the sky, but your child will be able to see the separation of the colors in the light.
Flour
#1 Measure the size of raindrops by putting a layer of flour into a flat pan. Set outside in the rain for just a few minutes, then cover and bring in. Strain the flour. The raindrops cause lumps in the flour. The bigger the raindrops, the bigger the lumps.
#2 Make "Prairee Paste" by mixing flour and water to the consistency of thick oatmeal. Use for paper art projects instead of glue. Dries white.
#3 Make modeling dough
MODELING DOUGH RECIPE 1: You'll need 1 cup white all-purpose (not self-rising) flour, 1 cup water, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, ¼ cup salt, 1 TBS vegetable oil, food coloring, wax paper, saucepan and metal spoon. Let your child decide what color she wants, and add food coloring to the water. Omit color for white dough. Put all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When dough starts to stiffen and stick to the spoon, dump onto a sheet of waxed paper, and allow to cool a little bit, until you can handle it without getting burned. Knead until smooth. Store in a plastic zipper top bag or sealed container. Children can use the dough to form numbers and letters, mix colors, and just be creative!
MODELING DOUGH RECIPE 2: This can be air-dried on a screen for 48 hours, so all sides dry completely, then painted and covered with clear acrylic spray, for lasting sculptures and ornaments.
2 cups white all purpose flour (not self-rising), 1 cup salt, 1 cup water. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then mix in the water a little at a time, until it's the consistency that you want. Knead a long time, like 5 to 7 minutes to get it a good consistency. If you want, add some food coloring to the water before mixing to make colored dough.
Food coloring
Mix a drop of food coloring into 1-2 tablespoons of milk. Make as many colors as you like, perhaps using a foam egg carton to hold the colors. Let children paint pieces of white bread with new and washed paintbrushes, then toast and eat!
Groceries
#1 When you return home from a shopping trip, give your child a few things in a bag to put away. Start with only four or five items. After she puts them away, ask if she can name all of the items that were in the bag. Increase number of items the next time.
#2 When making a package of something like macaroni and cheese, or following a simple recipe, read the directions out loud to your child. Then ask, "OK, what do I do first? What next?" See if the child can remember all of the instructions in order.
#3 Let your kids serve you for a change! Your children can make a menu and lunch. The children can serve as customers, waiters, "bus" the table, etc. Use prices on the menu that the child makes, and teach how to make good choices, figure tips, how to serve, how to address service people (with respect!), and more.
Grocery Shopping
#1 When going through the produce aisle with a pre-school to kindergarten age child, allow her to feel the smooth apples, waxed cucumbers, rough pineapples, and fuzzy kiwi. Experience textures and smells, discuss colors and shapes and food groups.
#2 Compare prices with your child. If your family always buys the least expensive brand, have him pick out which one that is. If your family prefers a more expensive brand of a product, discuss why it is worth more money to you. Figure out the price per serving of items.
#3 Listen to and discuss the music being played over the intercom. Is it fast-paced or slow? What is the mood of it? Ask your child if he knows why music is played and what mood the management hopes to create in shoppers, and why. For example, slow paced music is played to encourage customers to spend a lot of time, increasing the chances of buying extras. Fast paced music is played during busy times to encourage customers to keep moving, so the lines aren't so long!
#4 Notice the layout of the supermarket. Ask your child how to find certain staple items: Milk, flour, etc. What do you have to pass to get to them? What do you have to pass to get through the checkout line? Discuss impulse buying.
#5 Notice the advertising or labeling of different products. Ask your child to whom the marketing is directed: men, women, or children? Boys or girls? How can she tell?
See how many slogans or commercial jingles your child can recall for products she sees.
Discuss the roll of advertising in your buying decisions.
#6 Tell your child some slogans or jingles that you remember from your childhood. Discuss the lasting effects of feeding our minds, and the importance of feeding our minds with good things, and not watching or listening to things that we don't want to "carry" for years to come. Make up jingles for healthy foods, like bananas and lettuce.
Jars
#1 Glass jars make good bug holders and terrariums for your budding scientists.
#2 Fill a plastic jar about 1/8 of the way with dry, uncooked rice or beans. Glue, then tape, the lid closed. Let your child decorate with permanent markers, Contac paper or stickers. Makes a cool musical instrument. Let your child listen to a variety of music, from waltzes to Barney songs, keeping rhythm with the shaker. Notice that the rhythm of the music changes from one form to another. Discuss tempo and mood of music.
Laundry
Let your preschooler sort laundry by color, and match up socks for a great pre-reading exercise (this helps him learn to notice subtle differences in similar objects, like an "a" and an "o"). Talk to him about how we get different materials, such as cotton, wool, and silk.
