101 Brilliant Things For Kids To Do With Science

Dawn Isaac's 101 Brilliant Things for Kids to Do With Science is the follow up to her fab book 101 Things for Kids to Do Outside.  And Brilliant science is always a hit with Lara and Holly, we we jumped at the chance to review Dawn's latest book.

Inside the book, you'll find 101 different ideas for short activities that are awesomely fun, but each have a scientific lesson to learn. Lara, who is just about 8, has absolutely lapped this book up. Lara isn't just interested in the messy/interactive experiments and activities, I've seen her genuinely want to find out more about the science behind each activity.  Holly, who is now 5, is happy to join in and I know she is soaking it up too.

After school, the girls and their childminder like to choose an activity from the book. They've made boats in the bath, helicopters in the garden, messy tricks, big bubbles (cube-shaped ones in the picture below). At the weekend, Lara has been enjoying some of the kitchen-related science activities...

Last weekend Lara asked if she could buy some lemons, some bicarbonate of soda, some cream and some gelatine. She's been browsing 101 Brilliant Things for Kids to Do With Science and checking the cupboards to see which ingredients/accessories we already have, and which we needed to buy.  The book is perfectly targeted to Lara's age range and the style of writing is fun and engaging to her with hints of childish humour that encourage her to have a go and try something new.

The results of Lara's shopping list were soon revealed. Lara made her own fizzy lemonade by mixing bicarb soda with acidic lemon juice and water. She rather overdid the bicarb though so the chemical reaction was pretty wild... then the next day she and Holly did the same in the garden and thought it was hilarious to see the bubbles overflowing.

Later on, Lara asked me to help her make a mousse. A lemon mousse made from whipped egg white and whipped cream - a tasty experiment that teaches about trapping air in between strands of protein to help thicken a mousse. A fresh homemade lemon mousse was outstanding and Lara had great fun making it.

This weekend Lara has more plans - homemade air fresheners using gels and essential oils as well as a mandala made from natural objects in our garden. There's enough different ideas in this book to keep the girls going all summer and they are all so quick and easy to do. Each activity explains the sciency-bit in kid-friendly terms and gives you ideas of how you can take the experiment even further with your own explorations.

If you're looking for ideas of screen-free time for your kids then I really highly recommend 101 Brilliant Things for Kids To Do With Science.

  

Children's Book Review :: The Bee

Lara and Holly go to a school where bees are an important part of the school culture - from the very first term in reception, the children are taught about bee-keeping and get to see the school hives; bees and their lifecycle are a great prompt for writing, drawing, science and exploration which is why both Lara and Holly have absolutely loved reading and digesting this little book from the My First Discoveries range at Boolino books called The Bee.

The Bee is a captivating little hardback spiral-bound book with life-like illustrations that look so striking on their white backgrounds. Each page includes a series of facts or a question that prompts your child to think about what they see on the page. I love the fact that the illustrations are so detailed and that each page has a slightly different style; the mix of hard cardboard pages interlaced with clear cellophane pages to allow images to be overlayed is really very clever and makes this non-fiction book feel like something very special.

The Bee, by Moonlight Publishing, is suitable for infant school children from around 4-8 years old and would be the perfect inspiration for a school project. Lara enjoyed reading about the way in which bees make wax, and the different types of movement bees demonstrate under different circumstances.

Holly was most fascinated by the end of the book which looks at creatures similar to bees such as wasps and termites and how their homes differ. Holly can't quite read the text herself yet but it won't be long - the text is split into short paragraphs and bitesize facts which means they are easy to remember.

The Bee is part of a range of around 50 different non-fiction books which encourage detailed discovery of plants, animals, places, geographic phenomena and history; they are a great introduction to science and humanities.

Eco Kids Planet - Magazine Review

Eco Kids planet is a new monthly magazine for children but with a bit of a difference – targeted at children aged around 7 to 12 years old, Eco Kids Planet is a factual magazine packed full of science and nature facts, activities and games. I think its an excellent magazine which has the balance between education and fun for this age group just about right.

Lara is just a touch on the young side for Eco Kids Planet and was a little overwhelmed by the volume of reading content but you could tell that she desperately wanted to get going and find out more – finding out science “facts” is a big theme at school for her at present and you could see her eyes light up when she realised that this magazine would allow her to practice her new skills AND learn about the world.  She very much enjoys he challenge of reading new words and since reading these magazines she has been able to add a few tricky ones from the regular glossary feature including "meteorological", "meander" and "mollusc"!

Eco Kids Planet has a different theme each month – sometimes a part of the world such as the Alps, or the Amazon river, and sometimes a scientific phenomenon such as “light” in nature or animal “superpowers”. Each edition features animal facts, geography exercises, lots of beautiful images from the natural world, board games, puzzles, stories and step-by-step instructions for creative activities on the same theme. One copy of this magazine would probably provide enough entertainment for a week of school holiday fun for Lara.

I think it is brilliant to see a children's magazine that isn't covered in cheap plastic toys, or the beaming faces of television characters – this science and geography magazine really appeals to Lara's inquisitive and active side and her current thirst for knowledge. I also think its good value for money, certainly compared to other children's magazines – an annual subscription currently costs £29.90 but there are special offers for your first few editions if you subscribe by direct debit.

The magazine is glossy and packed full of material – it feels much more like an adult's magazine than a kids one, except for the noticable lack of advertising (this, we like).  

Lara has most enjoyed the puzzles in Eco Kids Planet but she has also enjoyed looking at the pictures of giant amazonian fish (great when your mother is a fish-a-phobic) and awe-inspiring birds of prey. For the pages with lots of text, we've read the magazine together and on a couple of occasions this has prompted Lara to ask to go online to find out more about the topic – we've used the magazine as a starting point for learning about different types of dolphins, or what the biggest bird is. As an adult, on the surface, the facts in the magazine are quite high-level but for Lara, these are her first introduction to topics such as rainforests, or avalanches and these facts are just the beginning of her learning adventure.

If your child is interested in science, nature or geography, or if you are looking for something which will spark their interest in a different type of reading (perhaps you've a keen reader who normally sticks to fiction) then I'd highly recommend Eco Kids Planet.

Technology Will Save Us - a DIY Thirsty Plant Kit

Lara has really discovered the joys of science in the past few weeks.  As a family we have made volcanoes, simulated shadows and explained the solar eclipse.  This week has been British Science Week so we have been eager to encourage this new-found interest for Lara and what better way than with a hands-on science kit from Technology Will Save Us?

This week, during the evenings, Lara, Holly and Daddy have been building their own DIY Thirsty Plan Kit.  This is a hands-on electronics project for children to build themselves.  It is designed for children aged 10 upwards because it has some small fiddly pieces to construct but Lara and Daddy built it together (with a little assistance from Holly!).  

The kit provides everything you need to make a solar-powered moisture sensor which will alert you when your house plant needs watering.  Lara thought this was really clever and couldn't wait to get started.  The little kit contained all of the materials and electronic components and the instructions can be found online.  First up, the girls mixed a plaster of paris concoction which is used to create the sensor with a pair of nails.  Then you twist the wires and LEDs to build the circuit.  There isn't any soldering required (much to Mr. B's disappointment!)

Testing out her circuit!

I thought this DIY Thirsty Plant Kit was a good introduction to electronics, though perhaps not as a child's very first experience of circuits which I think probably requires something a bit more immediate like a switch or a buzzer to explain the concept of basic electrical circuits.  But, armed with the basic skills and experience for creating a sensor can be the beginning of a fascinating science journey for older, eager minds and its great to see that Technology Will Save Us provide little tempting snippets to try and encourage this thought process about what you might do next once you've built your first sensor... perhaps you might wire it up to a twitter account to tell the world when your plant needs watering?!

Our sensor is now taking care of my prize chilli seedling!

You can find out more about Technology Will Save Us (as a child, parent or teacher) over at techwillsaveus.com.

Dr. Cool Science Kits Review : From Fossils to Volcanoes!

Lara is loving year one at school and always comes home enthused about the new topics she has learned - she seems particularly taken with the world of science and is often eager to conduct further research at home, either online or through experiments.  At 5 years old, it is great to see this sort of enthusiasm in her and I'm keen to encourage her interest.  Dr. Cool's Science Kits are a wonderfully interactive way of encouraging an interest in natural sciences and we were very lucky to be asked to review a couple of the Dr. Cools Science activity sets.

Dr. Cools Science Kits range in price from around £10 to £30 with topics ranging from crystals, geodes and gems to dinosaurs, fossils and bugs.  We tried out the Mine for Fossils kit which is designed to inspire your children to find out more about the heady world of paleontology!  Lara couldn't wait to get started.

In her kit, Lara received a digging brick, a piece of muddy rock, in which she had to very carefully dig for 10 real fossils.  Armed with her tools and her little brushes, Lara fastidiously scraped and sweeped.  She enlisted the help of her little sister with the digging!

The digging was a fairly messy exercise with clay flying here, there and everywhere (the instruction booklet did warn us about this!  The girls were beside themselves with excitement.  When I first read the instructions, I was a bit worried that the Mine for Fossils kit would be a short-lived activity but in fact, it took Lara three full afternoons to uncover her 10 real fossils.

The fossils range from sharks teeth to ammonites and even a large piece of dinosaur bone!  Lara was most excited to dig out a tiny fossilised poo!  The kit came complete with an activity guide which features a page of detail about each of the fossils, where they came from and how they were formed.  Lara thought this was the most fascinating thing ever.  I think it has really inspired her to learn more about fossils.  Even Holly has enjoyed going back to the fossils to look at them more closely with the magnifying glass and to keep on brushing them even cleaner!

The Mine for Fossils kit from Dr. Cool also includes an activity book which features 10 puzzles and challenges on the fossil theme - the kits are suitable from around 5/6 years up to 15 years old and I felt the activity book and guide were more suitable to slightly older children than Lara who needed me to help her with the reading and puzzles.  We did like the activity book though, and felt it was a great way of extending the enjoyment of the kit beyond the initial dig.

This week Lara is already getting excited about her next Dr. Cool's science experiment - The Ultimate Volcano Kit.  Daddy and Lara are going to create brightly coloured explosions this weekend and we can't wait. Stay tuned to my facebook page to see how we get on.