Science is cool!

Who else is trying ALL THE THINGS to keep their kids occupied this summer? We live in Illinois and while the shelter in place has lifted, there still isn’t much to do. County fairs are cancelled, pools are closed, camp looks more like school than field trips. I feel for the kids so much this summer. As an adult, I find it hard to comprehend everything going on and not feel disappointed when things I’ve been looking forward to are being cancelled. So I can’t imagine what it is like to our little ones. My six year old asked the other day why they could go to daycare and camp but the pools were still closed. She doesn’t understand how the “germs are gone some places but not others”. And quite frankly baby girl, I can’t explain it to you!

Here are a few activities that I did with the kids while we were in quarantine. I have a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry, so science is my jam. These activities focus on science, but you certainly don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the concepts and explain them to your children.

Climate and Plant Growth

This was an easy one with little set-up, but it takes a few weeks for the kids to see the results. All you need is three containers (I used mason jars), some seeds and a little bit of potting soil. The purpose of this experiment is to show how plants can and cannot grow in certain environments. For the first environment, we simulated the arctic. We put ice cubes in a small mason jar, sprinkled some seeds over the ice cubes and put in the freezer. Next, we did a cave. We filled the second jar with water, sprinkled the seeds and put them under the sink (but any dark place will do - I just chose under the sink so my curious two year old couldn’t find it!). Lastly, we created a healthy growing space. We did a “prairie”. For this, we planted the seeds in potting soil in a pot (a jar will work too). I asked my six year old which one she thought would grow the best and why. We talked about how plants need sunlight, warmth and water (but not too much!).

We checked the plants each day for a few weeks. As expected, the flower pot sprouted while the others did not. Unfortunately I have a black thumb and couldn’t even keep it alive long enough to get a full plant, but my kids got the idea!

To make this experiment even easier, I purchased a flower growing kit from Target. It included a pot, seeds and a soil material. The exact one I have isn’t online anymore but this one looks similar.

Walking Rainbow

This one was a crowd fav! My six year old is OBSESSED with everything rainbow right now (thanks Jojo Siwa), so I knew she would love this one. My four year old loved the science of it all (he takes after his momma). For this, you need seven clear containers/cups, six paper towels, water and food coloring. Place all the containers about 2 inches apart in a straight line. Fill the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th about ¾ full of water. Then, put food coloring in each cup of water:

• 1st cup: 5 drops of red

• 3rd cup: 5 drops of yellow

• 5th cup: 5 drops of blue

• 7th cup: 5 drops of red

Stir each cup of water. Fold each paper towel accordion style so that the strip is approximately one inch wide. Connect each cup with a paper towel strip. One end will be in water, one will be in an empty cup. Let your rainbow sit for about an hour and you will start to see the colors creep up the paper towels. We found the best results after about 24 hours. If your colors don’t seem to be transferring, you may need to add a bit more water (we had to do this for our blue/green).

My kiddos were a little young to understand the science behind the colors traveling up the paper towels, but we did talk about the primary colors and how they mixed to form secondary colors. Overall, they LOVED this one. I think the thing sat on our kitchen table for a week and I got a lot of tears when I finally deconstructed it.

Butterflies

Did you know you can buy real life caterpillars on Amazon?!? I swear, Amazon sells EVERYTHING! We purchased one of these kits and I can’t recommend them enough!

You receive everything you need to show your children the transformation from caterpillar to butterflies. The kit comes with five caterpillars in a plastic jar filled with food. So no worries about having to feed them. Over the course of a week or so, the caterpillars eat and go about their business. Just keep them out of the heat and sun and you’re good to go. You will notice they will start producing silks and the jar gets pretty gross. They also get VERY large! I couldn’t believe how much they grew in a week.

Eventually, they will all start making their way to the lid of the jar. After they had all cocooned, I waited about a day (to make sure they were good and steady) and transferred the lid to the butterfly garden net. The kit has a handy lid holder that holds it upright. This was the scariest part. I was terrified one of the cocoons was going to fall off during the transfer. While we did end up having one of them fall off, it definitely was a day or two after and totally not my fault.

They will stay in the garden for a week or so. Pretty soon, the butterflies will start emerging! This is the exciting part! The kit also comes with a feeder that you can put sugar water in to make sure the butterflies have sustenance. Once the first one emerges, the rest follow quite quickly. Don’t be alarmed if you see blood in the garden. Totally normal. I wish someone would have warned me about that part. I freaked but after a quick Google search, I found it was the norm.

After all the butterflies had emerged, I waited a few days to release them. They need some time to gain their strength and figure out how to fly. We let them go at my parents’ house (because it was time and that’s where we were for the weekend). When we opened the garden, I expected them all to flood out, but it was quite the opposite. We had to kind of lead them out. Even after some prodding, we could only get two of the five to come out. We tried again the next day and after some coercing, got them out and I got this awesome shot of my six year old admiring her butterfly. Even though we let them go at my parents’ house, she's convinced that one followed us home and everytime we see a butterfly, she says it’s hers (and I let her keep believing it!). It is important to note that the cocoon that fell off did eventually emerge, but the butterfly never did figure out how to fly. So I had to have that difficult discussion with my kids. Thankfully they took it pretty well.

This kit is great because they guarantee that at least three of the caterpillars will turn into butterflies. There is nothing worse than waiting a few weeks with expectant kids and then having nothing happen! Next year, I plan on just buying the caterpillars since I will have all the supplies from the kit. I hope your kids enjoy this one as much as mine did!

What science experiments have you done with your kids? Or maybe yours prefer a different subject? History? Math? I need lots of ideas to keep in my back pocket in case we move to remote learning again this fall (fingers crossed that's a big NO)!