Fun & Easy Science Fair Experiement

As a kid, I loved science. I remember if I asked my dad about something science related, we would often dive full force into it - searching for answers. My dad was not a science person by any means but he loved learning and wanted me to have that same love. My love of learning has certainly been passed onto my kids. Both are smart boys who love asking questions and discovering those answers.

When my son and I heard about the schools upcoming science fair, we started searching through Pinterest for some ideas. {Click here to find all the science projects we found.} The one that really caught his eye was "Rethink Your Drink" or discovering how much sugar is in the drinks we enjoy (and he thought it was be great to be able to drink all of those drinks afterwards!) We decided on a twist to that and wanted to discover how much sugar was in candy bars (of course, still fun to eat afterwards!)

Ashton picked out the candy bars he wanted to use and to make a guess as to which candy bar had the most sugar. Then he went about collecting data from each of them:
Name
Serving Size
Grams of Sugar

Once he figured out how many grams were in a teaspoon and did the math to figure out how much was in each bar, he started putting the exact amounts into some plastic containers and labeled each one accordingly.

After he wrote out all of his data and other information collected mounted it up on his poster board. We found a post from Hand Made Kids Art that really helped us being able to organize the board and make sure he collected all of the necessary information.

Looking back to when I was a child, when dad and I did science projects for school I'm sure anyone looking could tell that I obviously had not wrote out much of anything. While I remember pouring over encyclopedias (remember those??) And doing the research. I remember him doing most of the work on the poster itself. I remember kind of sitting back and him working the poster just right - so it looked good perfect (Type A parent for sure!!) I really try to not be that parent. It's not easy by any means....sloppy handwriting can drive me over the edge sometimes....but for the most part - I let him do all the work. In the end, it doesn't look perfect...but it looks perfect for him. And, really, that's all that matters.

And that he learned something. And had fun doing it. I think his favorite part was being able to present the project to his class and teach others.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure and visit me on Facebook and Pinterest for more fun science fair ideas.

Teaching Kids About the World Around Them - The Post Card Game

I had been looking for a fun way to teach my kids about the United States.

Looking at books or watching videos is fun.

I've found that, with my boys, they are hands-on learners.

So I needed to figure out something to spark their interest!

I started emailing every I knew.

Asking them to send my kids a postcard from their state and to write a little info about the state on the back.

I also asked them to forward my email onto anyone they knew that might help out too.

In return, I told each person that if we received a card from them

That the boys would send them a postcard from Nebraska.

That was great too, because we went to the library and found out a lot of interesting information about Nebraska that we never knew about.

The response was over-whelming!

The boys received over 90 postcards!!!

They were from all over the country!

It was amazing!

We also found out that a distant cousin of my husbands was a truck driver.

Him and his wife really got into it - and send Ashton and Colton postcards from every state they traveled to for months!

Everyone wrote interesting information about their states,

some included their favorite spots to visit.

And the boys LOVED getting all that mail! 

Everyday they got a postcard was like Christmas to them. 

I saved all the postcards in a photo album for them and we marked on a map of the US where they received postcards from - they learned so much! 

Side Note: Be patient with this. The cards won't start coming right away. Our first card came in almost a month after I sent out the email. It took about 6 months for them to get all 92 cards. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Do you have hands-on learners?

I'd love some new ideas! Please share!

 

 

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