Science by a Pre-Schooler

Okay, so there's nothing exciting in this science experiment other than seeing the joy of your child's eyes lighting up when she does her OWN science experiment.  My pre-schooler wanted to do a science experiment before her big sister came home and she was very specific as to what she wanted to do.  She wanted to fill a water bottle of water and drop a fish in it.  So we did.  The 'fish' was a little toy fish she had.  She wanted to know if it floated.

I took it a few steps further by asking her why the fish floated.  She also noticed the bottle does different things when squeezed, depending on whether the spout is open or not.  Again, I asked her why she thought it was doing this.

The point here is not to come up with some super elaborate experiment.  The point is for HER to develop her OWN experiment without help from Mommy and Daddy.  That's learning!  So encourage your kids to practice science and don't squash their ideas (unless of course they are unsafe, in which case squash all you want)!  Encourage their ideas even if they seem overly simple.