Here’s an adorable way to leave a message for your kids – and to teach them a tiny science lesson in the process!

Use a toothpick to score a message (whether words or a picture) into the peel of a banana. Thanks to the way this bruises the banana peel, your message will darken over time –  the longer it sits, the more visible it will be!

Note that you barely need to puncture the peel at all. The first time, I figured I needed to etch all the way down to the banana flesh, but this turned brown almost instantly.

A more subtle, gentle scoring of the peel reveals itself slowly.

Regardless, Travis was thrilled when I told him his banana had a secret message for him. He was so surprised!

He then needed to try his own hand at it of course. These would be fun for a kid to put together and slip into mom or dad’s lunch for work!