Science@home — Science activities for babies, toddlers & kids

Wordless Wednesday – Parasitic tree

September 5, 2012 Life and Living

We get lots of mistletoe parasites up here, but I had to look twice at this one. It probably isn’t a true parasite anymore because those root/trunks reach the ground, but it probably started as one when a seed lodged in the fork of the gum tree. There’s now a whole tree (some type of [...]

Glittery Leaves

August 31, 2012 Activities

I owe this one to the lovely backpacker who babysat my girls in Ngukurr. They came home with the most fabulous multimedia creations involving paint, rocks, containers and glitter glued leaves. What a great way to explore the veins and patterns on leaves and learn about different plants. First collect your leaves, always a fun [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Sand and Water

August 29, 2012 Babies

I don’t think the attraction ever fades. Playing in dirt – the original open-ended multi-age game.

Wordless Wednesday – Eureka!

August 22, 2012 Life and Living

The finalists for this year’s Eureka prizes have been announced, and as usual there are amazing photos to drool over. (Above is a Mantis Shrimp by Gary Cranitch) I have no idea of the legalities here, but I think that seeing I’m using the photos for comment, I’m non-commercial and I am attributing the photos and [...]

Take 2 marbles, …

August 17, 2012 Activities

Some spoons, boxes, lids and other small bits and pieces. Clear a hallway or space on the floor. Let the kids go, while they make up weird and bizarre rules about where the marbles have to go and how they have to get there. Science? Well, I suppose you could count the gravity weight comparisons [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Kingfisher

August 15, 2012 Life and Living

Look who popped in to visit one day. Sorry for the photo quality, I was taking them through a window before she disappeared. I think it’s a female because of the fairly dull colours, and she seems to be a sacred kingfisher. I like being able to identify some of the things we see!

Frozen Candles

August 10, 2012 Activities

A little while ago we made ice lanterns, remember? Something interesting happened with the tea lights, and led to many more happy burning sessions while the girls worked it out. This is one of the candles from the ice lantern, if you have a look you can see that the top still has a thick, [...]

Wordless Wednesday – More Weird Bathroom Light

August 8, 2012 Energy and Change

Obviously this is reflecting off something round, but we can’t work out what. I thought it was the metal corner strip, but we tried covering it up and the pattern was still there. In fact we seem to have tried covering pretty much everything reflective in the bathroom and we still get these starbursts all [...]

Look Closely

August 2, 2012 Activities

I have light blue eyes, as do my siblings and father. So it’s very obvious looking at us that there is a black spot in the middle. But I had a fun experience one time when I was teaching a class of 13 year olds in an Aboriginal community – they didn’t realise they had [...]