Finding the fun in simple science experiments

Science is everywhere. It’s in our daily lifestyle from the moment we wake up – and the good news is that little ones find it fascinating to learn how things work! We know that children do all their learning through play, particularly through exploration and testing, so while we’re all at home, it’s a great time to introduce them to some simple science experiments. And you’ll love their excited reactions!

Here, we take a look at just how much fun science can be for younger children and offer tips to inspire your enthusiastic mini biologist or engineer!

The benefits of encouraging at-home science experiments in children of all ages are endless! It helps develop their understanding of the world around them, as well as nurturing their problem-solving skills and creativity. What’s more, even aside from all that brilliant learning, scientific exploration makes for quality family time too so you’re creating fun and meaningful memories.

We’ve found some simple science experiments that’ll leave your mini professor marvelling at the results! For these experiments, you’ll need:

Get the most out of their exploring

As parents, we love watching our children learning and developing – simple science experiments are a great family-orientated task. Whether you’re making lava lamps, a rain cloud in a jar or exploring with oil and water, easy experiments can provide hours of fun and quality family time. But there are a few things you can do to help encourage their inherent curiosity and develop that desire to learn:

Discuss ideas with them. Find out what interests and excites them and as much as you can, let them lead the session – it’s their learning and they’ll get more out of it if they want to do the activity.

Be mindful of your dialogue – Carefully listen to every murmur and noise from your little one and then ask questions, probe responses, encourage and support them. Ask them what they think of the result, what they like about it and why they think it happened to really get them interacting.

Go big with your reactions! There are lots of surprises in children’s science experiments. Help to get them excited with your slightly exaggerated responses and lots of ‘wow! Look!’.

Give lots of praise. Your little one is demonstrating many important skills while concentrating on the science experiment – perseverance, patience, listening skills and the ability to follow instructions to name a few. Your little scientist is doing brilliantly so make sure they know and it’ll give them the encouragement and confidence needed to carry on!

We hope you enjoy these simple science experiments with your child – we’d love to see how you get on!

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