Simple at Home Experiments for Kids

Simple at Home Experiments for Kids

Kids learn through play. When you do simple science experiments, it helps develop many skills.  It builds various communication skills, vocabulary sentence length, questioning skills etc. Science experiments make the kids wonder, “Oh! How did that happen?” It increases curiosity in their little brains. This same inquisitiveness stimulates them to communicate. Hence, it is very important to use this to improve communication and various other skills. Here are some simple at-home experiments for kids to do at home. Enjoy!!

1. The Blind-Taste Test

For this experiment, you can choose foods of different tastes such as sweet, sour, bitter, spiced, salty etc. You are also going to need a blindfold to cover your kid’s eyes. Give your child a piece at a time and ask them to guess the food that they’re eating. You can limit the size of the bite to a small square or a teaspoon-sized amount. To make it interesting, you can allow only 2 bites or 3 guesses at max. Yup, it sounds like a MasterChef kitchen, doesn’t it? Be assured, your kids will love this experiment. You may include other senses such as the touch or smell of the foods as well. Get creative!!

 

2. The Fat-Detector Experiment (Pun intended 🙂 )

Ok, this is a very simple experiment that can not only help your kids differentiate between fat and fat-free foods but can help them eat healthy as well. You can use brown paper for this experiment. Simply swipe or rub the foods on the brown paper. Fatty foods will leave a greasy spot behind while non-fatty foods (fruits & veggies) will not. This will also help your kids choose what foods are healthy and which are not. Try out different foods with this experiment!!

 

3. The Grow a Plant Experiment

This experiment will require quite a lot of patience from you as well as your child. This can be done especially with the older kids. All you will need is an avocado seed, water, toothpicks and a jar. You can use any other seed. I’ve used avocado because it has distinct spots and is big enough to watch it.

 

Poke the sides of the seeds with 3-4 toothpicks. The narrow portion of the seed is where the stem will emerge and the broader part is from where the roots will grow. Place these toothpicks on the jar with the broader base downwards. Fill the jar with water till only the base of the seed is submerged in water. The top narrow part should be dry. Wait and watch for 6-8 weeks for the seed to sprout. Yeah, I know!! That’s a lot of time. But once it does sprout, you can watch it grow and talk about the different parts like leaves, roots, stem etc. You can later plant this little science experiment in your backyard and still watch it grow.

 

4. The Colour-changing Flower Experiment

Another simple experiment. Simply take white flowers and keep them in a vase filled with water. I usually prefer roses. Add a few drops of any colour that you want. Mix the colour and water well. After 4-6 hours you will notice that the flowers will start getting the colour. You can also split the stem of the flower and put it in vases of two different colours. This will yield multi-coloured flowers. In this way, you can experiment with different colour combinations.

 

5. The Invisible Ink Experiment

This experiment must be done or supervised closely by an adult. Squeeze a lemon into a bowl. Take a Q-tip and dip it in the lemon juice. Now take the Q-tip and write a letter, word or sentence on a blank sheet of paper. Once you have written it, you will need to iron the paper. Set the temperature to “High” and iron the paper. You will notice that the letters or words turn brown. And the ink is no longer invisible. Yay!

 

With all the above experiments, you can target the following speech and language skills such as

• Ability to follow directions
• Vocabulary skills
• Reading skills
• Sequencing skills
• Questioning Abilities
• Describing Skills
• Predicting & Inferencing………

And so much more. Have fun with these simple at-home experiments with your kids.

You don’t need fancy items to make great science experiments at home. Here are 23 Best Easy Science experiments you can do with everyday items.

And there isn’t really any age bar on science experiments. Anyone of any age can do these at home. Here are some more Science experiments for Kids

And if you still need more, here are some Easy Science experiments using materials you already have on hand

 

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