What to Expect the Toddler Years (157 page)

NURTURING THE SCIENTIST IN YOUR TODDLER

There are many little scientists in every toddler. Look closely at yours, and you’ll not only see a physicist in the sand-box, but a botanist, entomologist, and geologist in the park, an oceanographer at the beach, a chemist in the kitchen, an inventor in the playroom, an astronomer at the window—all examining, scrutinizing, experimenting, comparing, developing, and testing theories. All for the love of discovery

Unfortunately, the natural inclination to discover frequently doesn’t last much past the toddler years. Often, at about the same time children begin their formal science education, hands-on science becomes hands-off, and the scientists within are suppressed.

It is possible, however, to keep the inner scientists motivated all the way through their school years, or even for life. To start with, try these activities:

Classify, classify, classify.
Discovering how things are the same and how they are different is a fundamental skill. And though toddlers may not yet know a species from a genus, they can sort out trees that have leaves and trees that have spiky needles, fruits that have edible skins and fruits that have to be peeled, vehicles that have two wheels, four wheels, and more wheels.

Discover electricity.
Watch the effects of static electricity. Have your toddler rub a balloon against your hair and then place it on the wall, or run a comb through his or her hair and then use the comb to pick up little pieces of paper.

Grow some roots.
To help your toddler see that many nonhuman things grow, too, plant a root garden. Cut an inch off the top of a few root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, or beets, for instance), then place the vegetables cut-side down on a shallow dish. Pour some water in the dish, put it in a sunny place, and watch it grow roots.

Plant a dozen seedlings.
Use an empty egg carton as a planter for a seedling garden (use seeds from an orange or other fruit that your toddler’s eaten). Show your toddler how to set the seeds in the soil, water them, and give them sunshine; together draw a parallel between what makes plants grow and what makes people grow. If the seeds don’t grow, explain that some times that happens.

Be kitchen chemists
. Some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries can be made in the kitchen. Let your budding scientist watch (from a safe, supervised distance) as heat makes an egg turn from gooey and clear to firm and white; as a piece of bread (soft and light colored) turns into a piece of toast (crispy and dark); as air beaten into egg whites or heavy cream makes them thick and fluffy; as yeast makes bread dough rise; as blowing on hot food cools it off; as vinegar mixed with baking soda (and perhaps a drop of food coloring for drama) in a muffin tin “erupts” in miniature volcanoes; as sugar or salt crystals “disappear” in water; as raisins “dance” in the bubbles in a glass of sparkling water.

Reinvent the wheel.
What rolls besides a wheel? Have your toddler experiment with an apple and a block, a round rock and a rock that isn’t round, a roll of paper towels, a cork, a book, an empty plastic soda bottle. Discuss what the rolling objects have in common.

Attract some attention
. Let your toddler roam the house (supervised) with a large magnet and see what it will and won’t attract. See where your refrigerator magnets will (and won’t) cling.

Have a way with weight.
Select three objects of about the same size (a feather, a spoon, and a banana, for instance) and let your toddler’s hands be the scale that determines which is the lightest, the heaviest, and the one in between.

Make merry with measures
. Can you pour two cups of water into one cup? How many cups can you pour into an empty milk container? How many feet long are you (have your toddler make an outline of his or her foot, cut it out, use it to measure things—including you, lying down)? Or teach your toddler a lesson in how things grow by making
a height graph. Every couple of months, mark your child’s height on the wall (or on a tall sheet of paper taped onto the wall)—and watch together as the marks grow higher and higher. You can watch the growing of your toddler’s feet, too, by making foot outlines on tracing paper, and comparing sizes every six months or so. Now’s a good time, too, to explain the things that help children grow bigger—rest, food and drink, fresh air, exercise.

Be meteorologists.
Get your toddler in the habit of looking out the window each morning and taking note of the weather—and if the vocabulary is within his or her reach, issuing weather bulletins at breakfast. Weather-watching skills come in handy when your child starts preschool; “morning meeting” or “circle time” often begins with a weather report. Becoming weather savvy may also help your toddler become more sensible when it comes to dressing (a rainy day calls for boots and a slicker; a sunny hot day, shorts and sandals; a cloudy cold day, a warm jacket and mittens). Another weather related activity: On a rainy day, leave a jar outside to collect the rainfall; measure it with a ruler later on. When it snows, measure it, too.

See the world up close.
An unbreakable magnifying glass can show your toddler the world in an entirely new way. Have your toddler examine a few grains of salt, the peel of a banana, your skin, a strand of hair, a piece of wood, a green leaf and a dried leaf, bubbles in a bubble bath—and anything else that catches his or her scientific fancy. Plastic containers that come with magnifying tops are also fun, especially on nature walks.

Study nature
. Collect leaves and needles from different trees and compare. Carefully take apart a flower and study its parts (but make it clear to your toddler that this experiment should only be conducted with adult approval; otherwise you’re likely to find your entire garden dissected). Dig up a pailful of dirt from the backyard or in the woods when you’re hiking, spread it on newspaper, and examine the contents—you may be surprised by the amount of wildlife you can find in just a bucket’s worth of dirt. Make a bird feeder by coating a large pine cone with peanut butter mixed with corn meal, then rolling it in bird-seed; string it outside on a tree or your terrace, and watch the birds fly by for a snack. Follow some animals home: Pick out an ant returning with a mouthful of supplies, and follow it to its hill house; watch a squirrel as it retreats into a tree; spy on a bird flying home to its nest. Talk about the similarities and differences between your home and those of the animals and birds.

Study water
. In the tub or in a basin of water set up in the bathroom or kitchen, let your toddler fill and empty containers. Or provide a variety of waterproof objects and let your child discover which float and which sink. Together, try to figure out what properties make the floatables float and the sinkables sink. Give your toddler some sponges (cut into fun shapes, if you like; but watch carefully if your toddler is still putting things in his or her mouth); observe as they “grow” when dipped in water, then “shrink” again as they dry. Fill a paper cup with water and have your toddler place it in the freezer; examine the cup’s contents periodically, as the water turns to ice. When it’s hard, take it out again and let it defrost. Then put the melted water in a pot on the stove and bring it to a boil and let your toddler watch (at a distance) as the water turns to steam.

Do it in order.
Have your toddler arrange a group of objects in order of smallest to largest. As eye-balling skills improve, have him or her order the objects from largest to smallest, which is trickier.

Combine science with art.
Lie on your backs in the park and watch the clouds roll by (point out how they move, how they sometimes cover the sun). Then go home and draw pictures of clouds with chalk or paint. Cut open a carrot to examine what’s inside, then dip the cross-section in paint and do a vegetable print. Collect dried leaves and pine cones on a nature walk, then preserve the collection in a collage. Pick some flowers in your garden (or, with permission, a neigh-bor’s), then press them inside heavy books until they’re dried (explain that they dry as the water that’s in them is pressed out). Look for smooth, flat stones or large shells at the beach, then bring them home and paint them (they make great paperweight presents for friends and relatives).