It's been a bit since I've posted to the #weekend-engagement community. Honestly, finding time to even contribute to the wonderful Hive community, in general, has been tough. Long story short, life has been a bit in flux for the past two months. My mother-in-law managed to crack her head pretty good a few months ago, and now that she has recovered, she's required to have supervision some 24-7 every day. Queue the move-in with us and our family in good old Wisconsin....
One week in as of today with the "new normal," it's all been very stressful. Between the traveling between here and Chicago, solo daddy daycare for days on end while having the only full-time job in the family, and well, the uncertainity of comas, health care, and everything in between...it has indeed been difficult to get into a routine. Today, however, was different; with everyone here, for better or worse, Hattie and dad had a proper adventure in our backyard. That included...you guessed it, science experiments!
Our daughter just turned 5 and has fallen in love with science. We have Snap circuits, magnets, bugs, a bit of math, and even some moon watching...but today we pulled out a "DIY" book of science experiments. What fun!
The experiment above is fairly easy to concoct. Throw some ice in a bowl, sprinkle salt on top of the ice, and then pour a bit of food coloring over the top of the ice. The colors were fun to watch spread, but more importantly, it was an activity she was actively engaged with. Not the kind of activity that held a five-minute attention span, but an activity that she enjoyed for half an hour.
We've had a lot of Hattie / dad adventures over the past few years, but today was different. There was a different kind of enjoyment today; not only was Hattie into it for an extended period of time, but I enjoyed it because I could in her eyes the curiousity of it all. That, to me, is what makes a weekend adventure enjoyable. As simple as the experiment was, the level of interest that Hattie showed made me proud of her. I mean, I'm always proud of her, but today our little scientist was out to observe. She showed patience, and curiosity, asked questions, and observed her experiments...no screen time was required!
Who says the scientific method is dead?
