We received a science experiment book for Christmas (my eldest child wants to be a scientist when he grows up) and have been flicking through, finding experiments to do. There’s not always a lot of patience in this house, so we tried to pick ones that wouldn’t take too much time, but I was surprised at how much patience was shown once science was happening.

A popular one that seeing what would make ice cubes melt the fastest. The ice cubes were put into five bowls and placed on the kitchen bench – they had salt, sugar, normal tap water, salty water, and our control “nothing” ice cube. Although takes a few hours and isn’t too exciting, I was surprised at how often the children checked on their experiment, and reported back to us what was happening. There was even an objection when the experiment was tidied away, even after everything had melted.

So it was with definite interest that I clicked on this article Science In the home boosts children’s academic success. It made the point of, “When parents actively participate in kitchen-sink experiments, they become STEM mentors. When parents become partners by contributing specimens to a child’s leaf or bug collection and then go a step farther by helping their child to categorize those treasures with the help of an illustrated website, they are modelling what scientists do.”

There’s also some examples included of simple experiments you can do at home to encourage science. It was nice to read that we’re on the way to encouraging a love of science!