Bath Science

Departing from the usual blog about Scotland to write about another passion - education.  Specifically, the education of our daughters, aged 5 and 2.

Most days, I give the girls a bath after dinner. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes it is just another step in the process of moving them from dinnertime to bedtime.  But a few nights ago, they were having fun playing with the water and I realized the bath was a great place to learn science.  Whenever the girls get in the bath, they always want to play with the water.  We didn't bring much in the way of bath toys to Scotland - we had a few before, but they mostly got chucked before we moved.  So their bath toys here are:

• a recycled-plastic boat
• 2 sturdy plastic cups
• 2 "Little People" figurines
• 2 mitt-style washcloths

With these, plus water, we do science. A (5) notices that the water coming out of the faucet starts out wide and then narrows as it falls into the tub. Why is that? We hypothesize.  C (2) becomes obsessed with her "giving a gift" game, and puts a Little Person inside a washcloth.  She tries to give me a gift of "a person, and water," but the water keeps draining out. Why is that, I ask A? She answers, correctly, that the water can pass through the (cheap) washcloth.  Why? I ask again, and she explores it further, thinking about properties of water, plastic figurines, and cheap washcloths. And we haven't even started exploring the soap.