My children are ALL very hands on. As for me, I fumble through science every day usually. And because it is so difficult for me, I am not as excited about it as I should be. I firmly believe that we are not excited and having fun, no one really learns anything. We have to have fun; we have to make it tangible. This DVD helps do just that. And as you can see, the materials you need are easy to get, if not already on hand. You can sign up for lots of cool freebies too at ScienceandMath.com.
There are 2 DVD’s with 23 experiments; you can get yours for $17.95. Or you can get it right away with the downloadable version for $14.99. This is recommended for grades 1-3 but let me tell you, my kindergartener really got into this one! The instructor was so easy to understand; he demonstrated the experiments for you to see and in a simple, easy to understand way, explains the concepts behind each one. This is one happy momma here 🙂
I wish there were more because this really made a difference for all three of my children, my oldest two especially, who loved how they got to learn some of these concepts. It really is Amazing Science. I loved that the materials needed were easy to come by (we had most everything on hand from the get go). No pressure; none of that waiting or running to the store to find some strange materials or expensive tools. It was just so simple. So easy for all of us. And I didn’t have to fumble through the experiments and explanations either because its all right there for us to see and follow along with. We all just had so much fun!
Personal favorites in our house:
My oldest son (8) loved the balloon in a candle flame. Balloons are all the rage here; in fact he is learning how to make balloon animals right now (side-note) and hats and swords! So we have tons of balloons around here lately; never thought of using them for science until now. Now, about this one, let me tell you more, as an example. So all we needed was a candle, some water, a paperclip and a balloon or three (we popped one)! And we were ready to go. We walked through this with the video – pouring the water into the balloon (4-5tbsp was recommended). Then we blew it up and used the paperclip to hold it in place. After about 5-10 seconds of holding the balloon over the water (amazingly) it did not pop. He explains how the water absorbs the heat, keeping the balloon from popping. Putting it closer to the flame you could feel a little heat but still not as much as expected. In fact when we put the balloon on top of the flame, rather than the balloon popping, it actually made it so that the balloon put the flame out AND caused air pressure to hold it all together. Lifting the balloon, the candle was attached to the bottom. That’s some pressure right? A fun way to learn about heat conduction!
My daughter really liked the color changing milk (she is 2); in fact she did most of the steps for this one, while I watched, herself. Very simple and we had everything on hand. It did get a bit messy but what fun. Seeing the colors mix and change, dance, separate and swirl about. Reminded me of my tie dye days.hehe My daughter spent quite a bit of time just moving the colors about with her little q-tip. I think we could have done this all day.One drop of dish soap made such a difference. We did this one a couple times I admit; this was just plain fun!
My other son (4) found his favorite new activity in the Cloud in a Bottle experiment. I admit this was more challenging, mostly because it took forever to find the pump we needed. But he loves clouds, stars and planets, weather…Learning about how they are formed and getting to make his own – a dream come true! Never ending questions on how and why it all happens. So it was a blessing how simply it was all explained in the video. We did use a smaller bottle than was recommended but it was still a big hit! My son loves evaporation now. He gets it and looks for it regularly; the thought it was a cool chance to “see how God felt when He made clouds in the beginning” too. hah
I can not think of a better way to learn about heat, electricity, magnetism, temperature, buoyancy, surface tension and other science stuff. You can see a list of all the fun science experiments and watch a couple too! It was, Amazing Science!