Preschool Science: Oil & Water, Day 2

My son had so much fun with our oil and water activity that he recently came up to me with the bottle of baby oil in his hand and asked if we could do another project with it.  Always ready to think on my feet, I grabbed some food coloring and we put together this …

Preschool Science: Magic Milk

All of our preschool science projects lately have to have a color-mixing element.  My three-year-old is fascinated by this process and will plunge with delight into any project that involves food coloring.  Here is an absolute classic we enjoyed one recent Sunday afternoon: Magic Milk You will need: a shallow dish or bowl whole milk …

Preschool Science: Oil & Water

My preschooler goes bananas for any project that involves food coloring, so this week, we dyed some water and experimented with how it behaved in a bowl of baby oil.  You can use any type of oil for this, but we make homemade wipes, so we always have plenty of baby oil on hand! We …

Gardening with a Preschooler: The Strawberry Experiment

This summer for one of his projects, my three year old has been diligently caring for a strawberry plant. He waters it, keeps it clear of weeds, and on three separate occasions has had the supreme delight of picking a strawberry off of it. That's right. Spoiled as it is, the plant has only yielded …

Art Camp

Last week, we went to Art Camp.  Every year for the past twelve years, my family has descended en masse on my aunt's cottage on Lake Huron.  Here we do normal family vacation things -- like enjoy big meals together and play outside and go swimming and have board game tournaments -- and not so …

Family Project: Puppet Show

We have just returned from our annual week on Lake Huron with my family. Most families enjoy just hanging out on vacation, but we are not most families. For us, family time is project time. We paint and draw and quilt and crochet and dance and make pinatas and Chinese dragons and have masquerades and …

Homemade Finger Paint

We experimented with homemade finger paint this week using this simple recipe from Tinker Lab.  Most of the recipes I came across used water and sugar.  We don't usually have white sugar in the house, so I tried this one that uses flour instead.  It was very easy to make and the kids enjoyed mixing …

Water Baby

Nothing goes with summer quite like water play!  If you don't have access to a big pool for swimming, look into getting a small pool for your yard or deck.  Particularly for tiny kids, a chlorine-free option that's portable and can be set up in a shaded area is ideal. Both of our kids have …

Everything is Washable

The more independent my preschooler becomes, the more I actively try to step out of his way and let him spread his wings.  He has a naturally cautious temperament and is not one to dive into new situations.  This summer, he has been growing bolder, and I am trying to encourage him as much as …

Test, Observe, Revise: Engineering with a Preschooler

The slow-motion video option on my phone has captured my preschooler's attention lately, so we are using it to improve our marble track engineering.  When we record a run in slow-motion and review it, he can more easily see where problems occurred in our design and come up with potential solutions. He also really likes …