Windy Day Fun, and Science for Children

Want an easy, windy day, boredom buster for children? Tie pieces of ribbon, or string, to the handles of plastic grocery bags, and send the kids outside with them (keeping an eye on them, with the plastic bags, of course). If your children are like mine, they'll be entertained for quite a while.







I know most parents would give their children kites to play with in the wind, but we were actually carrying out a science experiment, as part of the activities from Seymour Simon and Nicole Fauteux's Let's try it Out in the Air, Hands-On Early-Learning Science Activities.

The book suggests taking balloons outside on a windy day, and letting them go, then trying to catch them in the wind.







Apparently, we have very sharp grass, because our balloons didn't last long.



So, we switched to the bags, which were a little sturdier, and held the air, quite nicely. We also observed paper bags, as we breathed in, and out, into them.



And, we dropped shoes, and feathers, discovering the air can hold feathers up for quite a while, but not our shoes, and that blowing feathers around the room, is almost as much fun, as running in the wind, with grocery bag balloons.

This is the second of these Let's Try It Out books we've tried out, and I highly recommend them, for younger children, ages 4-8. They explore simple science through hands on activities, and play, and can be read all in one sitting, or one activity at a time, over the course of several days.

We actually tried out most of the activities first, and then read the story together. My youngest two (ages 4, and 5), wanted to read it again, as soon as we were done, which I take as a good recommendation.

Other titles in the series include:

Let's Try It Out With Warm Hands, And Cold Feet

Let's Try It Out on the Playground

Let's Try It Out in the Kitchen

Let's Try It Out in the Water

and Let's Try It Out It Out with Towers and Bridges (which we adapted for a Sunday school lesson, here).

I would love to try them all out, with my youngest three, but in the meantime, we'll look for more fun with science, at this week's Science Sunday link-up, at Adventure's in Mommydom.

It's great to be a homeschooler.