Enjoy a Park

Looking for a cheap activity to do with your daughter or son?  Take a walk through a park.  It doesn't have to be a national or state park.  Any little city park will do, and if the park has a pond or river running through it, even better.  Below is a picture of  small man-made pond I took yesterday.

My daughter and I passed this small pond on our way to a gift shop, but we stopped to look at it.  This was an excellent opportunity to ask her a few basic questions.  What do you see in the pond?  What's your favorite thing in the pond?  Why do the fish move away when you get too close to them?  I just asked her a few quick questions to get her thinking.  This particular pond had a few fish, rocks, lilies, and some "slime" built up on the rocks.  Earlier this year in the spring there were little tadpoles everywhere in this pond.

You don't have to plan something elaborate or expensive to teach your child science.  All you have to do is slow down, let her explore nature, and ask her a few basic questions and she'll be learning science without even realizing it.  And you'll be teaching science without realizing it!