Day: July 15, 2021

Science at the Kiddie Pool

Leave a comment

It was a scorching hot day, so I filled the kiddie pool with a shallow layer of water and assumed Veronika would want to jump right in. When she was a little hesitant, I wondered what would happen if a few objects “jumped” in first.

I brought out a bag of objects and she began tossing them in one at a time. As each landed, we shouted out whether it sank or floated.

“It floats!” she said of a Duplo block.

“It sinks!” she called for a comb, toy car, and nickles. (And of course we made wishes while tossing in the coins).

A few favorite toys were next, all of which could swim i.e. floated. Now she was ready to climb in.

Pretty soon she was loving the way the water cooled off her little feet, and as a bonus, now there were tons of toys to play with in the water!

Between my big kid practicing his math with chalk games and my toddler practicing science at the kiddie pool, it was a day of fun and learning.

Advertisement

Even or Odd Race

Leave a comment

You can help kids keep math skills sharp this summer with this fun chalk game. To start, Travis drew a circle on our patio, and then a line to divide it in half (see how we were sneaking in geometry already?).

We labeled one half of the circle “even” and one “odd”. Next, toss an object into the circle (such as a pebble or shell). Depending which half it lands on, the tosser chooses a number that is odd or even. This was great review for Travis, as well as a chance to practice skip counting.

His first choice was odd (5). Pick a nature object (like sticks, rocks, or leaves) and set off on a race to find the correct number of that item. First person back to the circle wins! Travis ran back with 5 clover flowers in the first round, and 7 blades of grass for our second round.

Keep going and reviewing those evens and odds until your kids tire of the game! Note: For more of a challenge, make a rule that the number has to be between 10 and 20.