Gardening with a Preschooler: The Strawberry Experiment

Gardening with a Preschooler: The Strawberry Experiment

This summer for one of his projects, my three year old has been diligently caring for a strawberry plant. He waters it, keeps it clear of weeds, and on three separate occasions has had the supreme delight of picking a

Homemade Finger Paint

Homemade Finger Paint

We experimented with homemade finger paint this week using this simple recipe from Tinker Lab.  Most of the recipes I came across used water and sugar.  We don’t usually have white sugar in the house, so I tried this one

Test, Observe, Revise: Engineering with a Preschooler

Test, Observe, Revise: Engineering with a Preschooler

The slow-motion video option on my phone has captured my preschooler’s attention lately, so we are using it to improve our marble track engineering.  When we record a run in slow-motion and review it, he can more easily see where

Wikki Stix Letters

Wikki Stix Letters

I’m always looking for new ways to get my preschooler interested in making letters, whether through drawing, painting, Play-Doh, chalk, or writing in the steam on the shower door.  Any way to get him making letters!  He recently hit 500

Math Everywhere: Division

Math Everywhere: Division

While preparing for our first family trip involving an airplane, we got to do a little hands-on math.  Our kids’ pediatrician suggested we bring gummy bears along for the flight to help avoid painful ear pressure during take-offs and landings.

Preschool Science: The Walking Rainbow

Preschool Science: The Walking Rainbow

To reinforce the color-mixing ideas we’d talked about previously, we tried another experiment with food-coloring and water.  This demonstration relies on the tendency of liquids to reach equilibrium.  When we connect the jars, the water will flow until it has

Preschool Science: Color Mixing with Ice

Preschool Science: Color Mixing with Ice

We have been talking about boiling, melting, freezing, and states of matter with our preschooler, so we tried this simple color-mixing activity. First, we made blue, red, and yellow ice cubes.  We needed five of each color for this activity,

Preschool Math: Making Groups of Ten

Preschool Math: Making Groups of Ten

Here’s a quick and fun activity to introduce pairs that add to ten — important math facts to memorize early!  We used our Unifix cubes, but Duplos, Legos, or any other connecting blocks would work as well. I made stacks

Summer Goals

Summer Goals

Finally, finally, finally, summer is here! You cannot know unless you have ever taught middle school the blessed relief that Memorial Day weekend can bring. This new season brings a major shift in our day to day routine.  No more

No Wind, No Problem

My three-year-old is forever teaching me about determination (or “stubbornness,” depending on the particulars).  This week, it was the kite he got in his Easter basket.  Every day, he’s been looking out the window and declaring that it’s really windy