In full disclosure, I was provided with the Usborne book 50 Science Things to Make and Do in exchange for my honest review.
My son LOVES science so when I saw the Usborne Activities book entitled 50 Science Things to Make and Do, I knew it would be perfect for him. We love creating science experiments at home from kits as well as from supplies we have around the house. I love watching the intense look in his eyes as he tries to figure out what will happen next. I love even more watching the pride in his face when he completes an activity successfully!
Experimenting with science is a wonderful way for kids to learn and grow. As I stated in my article Kids and Science: A Perfect Match, science is the perfect subject for kids to explore as they are naturally curious. They love to ask questions, explore their environment and discover new things. Kids love to learn, and they don’t even know it!
The Usborne Activities book 50 Science Things to Make and Do offers the perfect venue to explore and discover with your kids. This book offers amazing experiments you can conduct right in your own home with supplies you most likely already have. Kids will delve into the world of physics, chemistry and biology using a fun, hands-on approach.
When the book arrived, the first thing I did was have my son flip through all the pages and put sticky notes on all the experiments he wanted to do. I think it is important to allow kids choices and be actively involved in their learning! He picked A LOT of exciting experiments!! Then we looked through all he chose to decide what we would work on first and see what supplies we needed. Since so many experiments use basic household items, we did not need to purchase too many supplies.
Over the past month, as a family, we completed several experiments together (and have many more to go). The first one was called Stable Structures. By using only uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows, my son and husband built a fun tower. While building, they learned basic principles of engineering like how cubes and triangles make buildings strong. My son also enhanced his fine motor and visual-spatial-organization skills while building! The beauty of this experiment is that it also involved creativity and imagination as the kids could create any size tower they wanted!
My son was so proud of his spaghetti and marshmallow tower!
Another experiment my son did with my husband was Paper Planes. This is a classic craft that kids have loved to make for generations, but who knew it was based on scientific principles? The Usborne book contained detailed step-step picture instructions to make the plane. With this experiment, my son was able to explore the world of aeronautics, the science of aircraft design, construction and navigation. With tips provided by the book, he was able to change small details of his plane to allow it to fly and steer in different ways.
My son was very proud of his camouflage plane. His design strayed a little from the book, but that’s the beauty of experimenting!
50 Science Things to Make and Do offers a wide variety of experiments involving cooking ingredients such as milk, sugar , juice, ice and eggs. Here are 2 experiments we recently completed:
Meringue Science was a fun baking experiment that exposed us to basic principles of chemistry. We learned what happens to albumin chains in eggs when whisked. As the eggs are whipped, the albumin traps the air bubbles and turns the egg whites into foam! Just add sugar and bake for 15 minutes, and you have yummy meringues!
For the Fruity Ice Slush, we made our own orange slushy drink without using a refrigerator or blender! We placed a glass cup of orange juice in the middle of a bowl of ice that was sprinkled with 3 tablespoons of salt. We set the timer and stirred the orange juice every 10 minutes for about 1.5 hours. We were so excited to find that the OJ turned into a yummy slushy drink! We learned that adding salt makes the ice melt at a lower temperature. The cold salty ice and water then absorbs the heat from the juice, making it very cold and eventually freezing!
The boys LOVED the yummy orange slushy we made by just using ice and salt!
We had so much fun making these science experiments, and we cannot wait to make more. Some other experiments from 50 Science Things to Make and Do that my son wants to do are:
- Water Power
- Rubber Band Paddle Boat
- Foaming Monster
- Wind Vane
- Hanging Crystals
- Paper Compass
- Salt and Candy Crystals
50 Science Things to Make and Do offers great ways to get young kids excited about science. Although it is recommended for kids ages 6 and up, my 2-year-old also loved being involved in the action. There are so many reasons to LOVE this book including all of its developmental and educational benefits! Here are just a few:
- Easy to understand and follow the directions.
- Provides affordable family fun and learning.
- Encourages discovery, exploration and creativity.
- Increases various skills such as fine motor, visual-spatial, problem solving, language and more!
- Teaches kids to be patient, follow directions, cooperate and work well with others.
- Teaches the basic principles of science which allows for greater academic development.
- It’s FUN!!
Want your own Usborne 50 Science Things to Make and Do book? (Of course you do!) You can purchase it for only $9.99 on the Usborne website!