One morning, Joy came skipping into the living room like a ray of sunshine.To her dismay, she found her bright red balloon crinkled and floppy.
“Oh mummy, what happened?”
It seemed like a great opportunity to talk about how air occupies spaces.
“ The air went out, dear.”
“ No, there was nothing inside.”
“ Yes, there was. The balloon was round because the air inside exerted pressure and pushed the sides of the balloon.”
Open-mouthed bewilderment, easily mistaken for awe.
“Right,” I sighed,” let’s find out what happened.” Of course that explanation didn’t make sense. She was four, for goodness’ sake.
We got out an inflatable globe which had been punctured a month ago, and which we had stashed into the “to-do-when-we-can” cupboard.
“I wonder what’ll happen if I blow it up.”
She laughed.
“Silly mummy, it gets round.”
Peals of giggles.
When the globe had inflated, I asked her what I had “put” into the globe.
“ Saliva . You blew.” Was the answer.
Right. Ahem.
I explained that I had blown air into it and the air inside was pushing the sides, making it round.
“What if there was a hole in it. I put in air, so what would come out?”
“Air ? What about the colours? Will that come out ?”
“Good guesses. Let’s find out. This globe has little hole in it. Let’s put it under some water and see what happens, shall we?”
Silence, also commonly mistaken for awe.
“Mummy, I need to wee wee. Ohhhh..”
So, fifteen minutes was taken to clean Joy and the floor up. And another couple of minutes to regain my train of thought.
After that interlude, we conducted the experiment and watched bubbles trail out where the leak in the globe was.
“Bubbles, mummy.”
“Yes. Where did they come from?”
“The water.”
“That seems to be so, doesn’t it? Let’s take a closer look. Feel this ( the skin of the globe). What do you feel?”
Touching the hole from which bubbles were erupting.
“Bouncy!”
“Right. “
“Bubbles are bouncy.”
“So where are the bubbles coming from?”
“This,” she said, feeling the leak.
I explained that the bubbles were air.
After that, we took the globe out . It was limp and floppy.
“ What happened to the bouncy , round globe?”
“Air went out ?”
“Good observation. That’s why it’s..”
“Like your slippers!”
It was close to a eureka moment ! She had discovered something, with some guidance and lots of participation from me and sprinkles of interruptions throughout ( besides the wee incident, there was a phone call, and the floor had to be wiped because the water in the pail spilled over.)
From various ‘eureka events’ that take place in our home, I have found these tips to be helpful:
-Expect interruptions. Come on! This is a home, not a school!
-Expect mistakes. What greater way for our kids to see that making mistakes is part of learning?
- Ask open-ended questions such as : “I wonder..”, “What if..” , “Why …”, “Maybe…”
- Respond to wrong guesses with encouragement. Helpful responses include, “That seems to be the case. Hmm. Let’s a take a closer look…” , “ Let’s think about that a bit more…”.
The thing is to have a blast when you explore science with your children. There’ll be messes, interruptions to your schedule, but I believe the reward surpasses these ‘glitches’. You’ll have a voracious learner, learning from YOU!
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