Jumble House Learning for young children

Everyday Science

EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Why? How? What if?

We experience the magic of science so many times a day without even thinking about it. To us it is just routine. Part of our everyday life. Very quickly it also becomes routine to a child and then the ‘magic’ is lost and so is a very easy way of absorbing basic science concepts. Things that kids often find boring in a classroom situation at school when introduced at an early age in a 1:1 situation, they are fascinating!

It’s usually the child who asks ‘why?’ but sometimes it’s good to turn the tables!

There’s no need to know the answer either! Brainstorming.Throwing out suggestions, ideas, even funny and silly ones makes learning fun and motivates children to want to find out more.

Examining a dry fresh teabag partly answers the question and is probably sufficient for toddlers. For older children further answers can be found together by watching an age appropriate animation or video on the internet.

WHAT IF?

Prediction is a vital and a fun part of science. It gives us an opportunity to experiment. To investigate and to test out our theories.

What if we used cold water? What do you think would happen? How would it be different?

Then try and find out! I haven’t got the answers on my channel but I have made quite a few programmes to introduce very young children to the magic of science. Try them and if you enjoy please subscribe to my channel. Everything is free. More ideas every day this week.

Jumble House Christmas Crafts, Learning for young children

Make a Snowman Lamp

Make a ⛄️ lamp. Fun, quick and effective. Not quite as quick as this video but there’s a more ‘relaxed’version on my channel to watch with your children or group. I used the inside of a pillow for the snow ❄️ effect. The head is a homemade string bauble but you could use a plastic ball. The ‘lite cube’ is very effective but a led candle would be ok.

Jumble House Learning for young children, Science, Science Challenges, Science for kids

Where do the holes come from? The Science of Bread.

We wanted to know how the holes got into bread so we watched Maisie making a loaf of bread ‘Yummy Good for your Tummy Bread’ and then made some ourselves.

Click here for the video showing how to make the bread

Watching the yeast fermenting and producing all those tiny bubbles is fascinating and children love to have a go kneading the bread dough.

Using fresh yeast to do this makes the science behind bread making much clearer.

After producing a really delicious loaf of bread using Maisie’s instructions we looked at the conditions needed for the yeast to work.

This is what we did:

We put the same amount of yeast in seven dishes.

Dish A … we added sugar.

Dish B … we added cold milk

Dish C … we added warm milk

Dish D …we added sugar and cold milk

Dish E … we added sugar and warm milk

Dish F … we added sugar and very hot milk.

Dish G … just yeast. Nothing added.

Then the children were asked to PREDICT which dish the yeast would work best in.

The dishes were left for 30minutes.

This dish did the best. Which was it? What conclusions did we draw?Well, you need to try the experiment out for yourselves to find out because that is what ‘Jumble Fun’ is all about! Motivating children to be ‘hands on’

A good introduction to the simple science of yeast for very young children can be found on the Jumble Fun in the ‘Science for Kids’ playlist on out channel: http://tinyurl.com/funjumbles

In this programme Lizzie Witch illustrates how to blow up a balloon using yeast

Click here for the yeast and balloon experiment

Jumble House Art and Craft, Autumn, Learning for young children

Mrs Spoon

Collecting autumn leaves is fun. They are colourful! Crispy and NOISY!

We love crunching them under our feet and watching them fall from the trees.

I take a magazine out with me and slip the leaves between the pages. That way they don’t get broken on the way home.

Once home I slip the magazine under a rug for a couple of days to flatten the leaves.

Then we’re ready to make our Mrs. Spoon.

Jumble House behaviour, Learning for young children, parenting, Parents

Catch them being good

Catch them being good.

You know that great feeling you get when someone says ‘Well done,’ or thanks you for your hard work, or comments on how nice you look or how much they enjoyed your meal? Acknowledgement, positive reinforcement and praise work wonders to raise our self esteem and motivate us to continue.

The same applies to children.

Like us, they need praise.

Too often we tend to comment on the negative behaviour but neglect commenting on the positive. This becomes a downward spiral. Kids want attention and they will find the best way to get it!

If they get more attention by behaving badly then this is what they will continue to do. If they are praised for eating correctly, putting their toys away, not interrupting, sharing, playing quietly etc, then their periods of positive behaviour will increase. It’s hard to apply this method initially but it’s worth it in the long run!

Jumble House Art and Craft, Learning for young children

Abstract clock from strips of folded paper. There are paper folding and rolling projects to suit all ages and tastes from simple pencil holders and picture frames to abstract art and clocks. The technique of paper rolling and folding improves coordination and strengthens hand muscles making it a good exercise for young children. With help a four year old will enjoy making simple but attractive and useful pieces. This clock is more of an adult project but you could share the task of making lots of folded paper strips and then the younger members of the family could use some for their own creations while you get on with the clock! I made this clock from torn out pages from some rather dog eared picture books. Pages from any shiny magazine or brochure will work just fine. You could also print out family photos or snaps from a celebration or holiday to make a great ‘memory ‘ clock. The base is a (working) canvas clock which I have fallen out with! The only other requirements are white glue and a pair of scissors. The full video can be found in the Art and Craft playlist on my channel ( click on the link below:

Click here for the video showing you how to make the clock.

Jumble House Challenges, Learning for young children, nature, Outdoors

Why? Why are there more yellow flowers?

WHY? My daughter once asked me why there were more yellow flowers than white. To be honest I’d never even noticed! But, yes, she was right. When I looked around there were more yellow flowers. Why? I hadn’t a clue so I threw back the question! “I don’t know. Why do you think it is?” Young children are SO much better than us at answering their own difficult questions! Back came the answer, ‘Maybe it’s because the bees prefer yellow flowers?’ A pretty good hypothesis to start with. So from there we got into a conversation about what the bees were doing on the flowers and was it just bees or did other insects visit flowers and why? Then of course came an even more difficult question! “But how can we find out?” Well, by then it was getting rather near to tea time and my mind wasn’t really on bees and flowers. But daughter being very persistent would not let it go! To cut a long story short she decided to test out her colour theory by placing clear plastic dishes with a sugar solution on a selection of different coloured card. Then I got on with making the tea while she sat there like a statue counting how many insects visited the different coloured ‘flowers’! The result? Was her prediction correct? Try it and see!

Jumble House Learning for young children

The one with the glove!

A fun vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda) experiment.

In the first part of the video Lizzie Witch works magic on a glove.

THIS IS THE LINK TO THE VIDEO

In the second part we show how this can be achieved without magic. In other words ‘clever science ‘.

There is also a simple explanation of the process which is an acid reaction.

So, with the help of an adult, children can produce the same results as Lizzie but …..is that enough? Well, in my opinion it isn’t! I think once they have repeated the experiment they need to investigate further. This is where the creative thinking comes in and that is so important!

So what can they do now?

Well, here are some suggestions:

  • What happens if you add less or more bicarb to the same amount of vinegar. Get them to predict what they think will happen before doing the experiment.
  • does changing the kind of vinegar change the results?
  • Can you use different thicknesses of gloves?
  • Can a balloon be blown up in this way.
Jumble House Children, Fun, Learning for young children, Travel, Travel with kids, Umbria

I Spy Trasimeno

I SPY TRASIMENO is a booklet I’ve compiled for families with small children visiting the area around Lake Trasimeno. It includes, Castiglione del Lago, Corciano, Passignano, SAN Feliciano, Isola Maggiore, Isola Polvese, Monte del Lago and SAN Savino.

It contains photographs of places and objects for children to find when visiting these different places and features my ‘Jumbles’ toys. The booklets are available from Tourist Information Offices and from Jumble House.