Glimpse Of A Toddler Science Sunday

I have a 3 years old daughter who has taken a bit of an interest in science. I started this blog after reading the back cover of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I thought that the book advocated a very bad way to teach science and math to kids. My first post had a lot of ranting, but not a lot about the simple science projects that my daughter has been doing. In this post I will show a glimpse from last Sunday's science project.


From Party Girl To Science Girl

I had expected my daughter to be an introspective, nerdy kid, but for a while she got the nickname "party girl" since she loved to climb and run around. We started Sunday in a park in Tribeca with a great jungle gym. She still loves to climb.

Lately we have had a hard time getting her to take her midday nap, which generally means grumpiness and wildness later. She took a short nap and when she woke up she asked to do a science project. I was exhausted, since I did not get any break, but we started a science project.

First Experiment Mixing Oil And Water

The first experiment was mixing oil and water. This illustrates that water molecules and oil molecules have different chemical properties, water being polar and oil being non polar. This was first time she tried this experiment. 

Mix water and oil, see that they separate

Add soap

Now oil and water mix to an emulsion

The Laboratory

I bought 2 small science kits. They look like a pile a plastic junk, but they are actually a good way to get started with simple science projects.

The Laboratory

Archimedes Revisited

We had already made an experiment with putting clay in water and seeing that it sinks, then turn it into a boat shape and see that it floats. She tried that one more time.

Building a clay boat

Everything was going great, but slowly her attention span was getting worse. 

Stomping on clay

Next thing, the mild mannered science girl had turned into The Hulk stomping on the clay to flatten it. This worked pretty well, except that the clay got stuck to the floor. We abandoned Archimedes.

Planting Seeds

She also repeated the seed planting experiment. Since the cup with the plants from the last seed planting experiment got knocked over.

Planting seeds

This went well but her attention span was getting worse again.

Cute is turning into wild

We tried to continue, but jars from the science kit were now flying around the laboratory. Maybe we should quit while we are ahead.

Toddler on a rampage and olive oil on camera lens

Time to run her out of the house. We took her to a bar to see some live acoustic music and let her run around and dance. She proceeded to rediscover slam dancing; while one of her little friends was dancing the pogo, a punk dance from the 1970s where you just jump up and down with a stiff torso.

Can and should a 3 year old girl be into science?

This blog is about my 3 years old daughter, who has taken a bit of an interest in science. She is a big Why Kid. A day shortly after she turned 3, I was watching her alone. We looked around on the Internet. One thing we found was a one minute low quality computer simulation of water freezing on YouTube. To my surprise she liked it.

I went out and bought her a couple of picture science books and small science project kits. She liked that too.

A week ago she proclaimed:
I am into science and music.

This only started 3 weeks ago, and who knows if it will last.

Drawing on blackboard

Night time stories from Pippi Longstocking to science

My daughter's big problem is that she is a very bad sleeper, every night I have to stay in her bed and read her stories till she falls to sleep. Her favorite stories are about Pippi Longstocking, a little orphan girl who refuses to go to school, eats candy all day long and beats up policemen and school teachers for fun.  I loved those Pippi stories when I was a kid. When I read them now I wonder if Pippi really is such a great role model for kids. Recently I have started to mix Pippi stories with talks about science.

Bedtime Science Story Topics

The topics for the bedtime stories are very simple chemistry, physics and biology explained without much detail.

• Simple molecules, like water
• Temperature and molecule motion
• Cells
• Bacteria
• Virus
• Planets
• The sun
• The stars
• Magnets
• Electricity
• Energy as something that can make other things happen

Science projects

The science kits are basically just a pile of plastic junk. Still, they make it easy to get started. These are the experiments we have made so far:

• Made boats out of clay that is heavier than water
• Get a metal paper clip floating on water to illustrate surface tension
• Spinning top with rainbow colors turns them into white
• Planted seeds and watered them
• Look at plants and other things through a magnifying glass
• Took the temperature of hot and cold water
• Got a little ball suspended in the air over an air stream

She likes the the projects. She often asks if we can do a science project.

Should a 3 year old girl be interested in science?

I will split this question into 3 sub questions.

Can a 3 year old understand science?

I read Piaget's theory about child development and he said that a kid brain only develops logic capabilities when they are 7 to 11 years old.

I do not think that logic reasoning is a requirement for understanding basic science.

Does learning science early help them later?

This is debatable. I am very curious by nature. Before 10 I was interested in science, but it was hard to do any of it by myself. I had a friend who was older and had a chemistry laboratory in his tiny basement room; it was the coolest thing to be there. I got a little chemistry set myself, but did not really know what to do with it. It did install the notion that science was cool, and I ended up studying science later.

Is it bad to take playtime away from kids?

At 3 years old, science is just another game. 

You have no idea what little kids are interested in and what they are good at. Exposing your kids to a lot of different things is valuable. 

Reaction to Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

A small incidence sent me into a rage. I discovered a new book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, who is a law professor at Yale. She is using extreme methods to push her 2 daughters to academic excellence. They had to be the best in their class in everything except drama and physical education. Math was a topic that she really drilled them in. Just reading the back cover sent me into a rage; so much that I decided to start this new blog: Bedtime Science Stories, just to get my anger out.

There are hundreds of critical reviews of the book already, so let me just give one thought: If you raise your kids on the principles in Tiger Mother you risk turning them into obnoxious know it alls or possibly insufferable or damaged kids.

Science for everybody

Amy Chua and I both want to raise daughters that excel in science and math; but we see science very differently.

To me, science is about exploring the world. 

It is about being curious.

It is about questioning things, including your own findings.

Science should not be an elite activity. Making it very competitive will make a new generation of kids hate math and science. Understanding our world is worthwhile activity even if you are not the best in your class. 

Preliminary results

Take the time machine half a year into the future to see preliminary result in my fourth blog post: First Semester of Science School for 3 Year Olds