Projects for Children

How to Create a Battery from a Lemon

Create a Battery from a Lemon

How to create a voltaic cell battery using a lemon.

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How to Teach Kids About Astronomy

Teach Kids About Astronomy

Astronomy is the oldest of the physical sciences. The night sky and its array of stars, wandering planets, changing moon phases, occasional comets and meteor showers, and, in far northern and southern latitudes, shimmering auroras, have fascinated mankind and stimulated the imagination of generations. With the recent discoveries of planets orbiting other stars and the exotic environments of the planets and moons in our own solar system, the opportunity is there to fascinate a new generation with the wonders of the universe. Teaching children astronomy can appear challenging to the point of intimidation, but with some knowledge of astronomy and your child's particular interests related to the subject, you can stimulate your child's interest in astronomy. Following are some ideas and methods for teaching astronomy to children.

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How to Make Clay for Kids

Make Clay for Kids

Do your kids like playing with clay but you don't have the money to buy it for them? Or do you want something fun to make with your kids that they can have fun with? Try making clay at home.

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How to Make a Naked Egg

Make a Naked Egg

Peeling isn't just for hard-boiled eggs; you can separate the shell from an unboiled egg simply by soaking it in vinegar! Not only will you be left with a "naked egg," but you'll also have a chemistry lesson to go along!

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How to Make Your Own 3D Glasses

Make Your Own 3D Glasses

Making your own 3D glasses is so easy to do that you can whip them up just before a movie, right at the moment you discover the ones that came with your 3D DVD are missing! Here are two methods for producing effective 3D glasses at home.

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How to Make a Soda Bottle Volcano

Make a Soda Bottle Volcano

Making a soda-bottle volcano is a classic science experiment that doubles as a great excuse to make an explosive mess. Read on for instructions on making a make a soda-bottle volcano with soda and Mentos (which can produce eruptions of up to 18 feet if done correctly) or with the classic baking soda and vinegar combo; additionally, scroll down to find instructions on designing the volcano itself.

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How to Make Water Rise

Make Water Rise

It's not in defiance of the law of gravity to make water rise, but you'll need a few tools and a little help from science. Here's how.

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How to Experience the Pinocchio Effect

Experience the Pinocchio Effect

The Pinocchio effect, named after the fictional puppet-turned-boy of the same name, is a tactile illusion, an illusion that uses your sense of touch to "trick" your brain. Such illusions are remarkable because they challenge what we think we know about our perception of the world. Want to expand your nose and your mind? Try it out.

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How to make a Stethoscope

Make Your Own Stethoscope

About Making a Stethoscope:

Whether you want to make a stethoscope as part of a set of Healthy Heart activities or simply because your child is curious about how the one at the doctor’s office works, it’s a simple activity that requires little effort and just a few household materials.

The stethoscope you make can help your child hear the difference between his resting and active heart rates as well as the difference between the sound of his heart rate and other people in your house.

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Glittery Volcano

This project is part science experiment, part sensory fun! The volcanic reaction of vinegar and baking soda, with some glitter for extra sparkle, exploding over corn starch made some wonderful pretend snow to play in. Although easy to set up, it occupied my kids for nearly an hour afterwards.

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Salt Water vs. Fresh Water

Explore the difference in density between salt water and fresh water with this easy experiment.

What You'll Need:

- Water (2 glasses)

- Salt

- Spoon

- Food coloring

- Ice

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Exploding Colors in Milk

Make colors swirl and mix in milk.

What You'll Need:

- Whole milk

- Food coloring

- Dishwashing liquid

- Cotton

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How to make a Tornado in a Bottle

Make a Tornado in a Bottle

Make a Tornado in a Bottle

Learn how to make a tornado in a bottle with this fun science experiment for kids. Using easy to find items such as dish washing liquid, water, glitter and a bottle you can make your own mini tornado that’s a lot safer than one you might see on the weather channel. Follow the instructions and enjoy the cool water vortex you create!

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How to make Glowing Water

Make Glowing Water

Make Glowing Water

Make glowing water with the help of a black light in this fun science experiment for kids.

Tonic water doesn't look very strange under normal light but what happens when you look at it under a black light? Does the dye from a highlighter pen do the same thing? Find out what happens and why it happens with this cool experiment that you can do at home.

What you'll need:

- A black light (you can find them at places like Walmart and hardware stores, as well as online stores like Amazon).

- Tonic water or a highlighter pen.

- A dark room to do the experiment

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Ice Sculptures with Salt and Liquid Watercolors

This colorful salt and ice sculpture activity is an oldie but a goody. I've seen it around a fair bit, but we hadn't tried it ourselves until just recently

First, I made a block of ice by freezing water in a milk carton. I set the ice in a baking dish and let Maia take over for the rest of the art project (or is it a science project? both I guess). I think you're supposed to sprinkle salt on top of the ice. Maia poured salt on top. Lots of it. First coarse sea salt, then Morton's table salt.

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Magic Potion Spoons

Today we decided to try an experiment that I saw from one of my favorite bloggers, Mom To 2 Posh Lil Divas. Rather than tell my kids we were doing an experiment, I told them we were going to have fun with some magic potion spoons. What kid doesn't love magic? My kids definitely had a lot fun, especially when trying to guess what color potion they would get next. We'll definitely be doing this again soon!

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Science Experiment: Sparkly Explosion

Sparkly Explosion

My daughter has been requesting science experiments that explode, sparkle, and use fire! I love child-led learning because it helps cultivate a love for education and skills to learn independently in the future. It is also a form of assessment because you can see exactly how your child is processing information you have already taught. This little gem is completely my daughter's creation, but we all loved it. I hope you have as much fun with it as we did! And don't worry--I have several more fiery experiments and demonstrations to put up soon!

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Celery and Food Coloring Experiment

Celery & Food Coloring Experiment

My son was eager to use a plastic pipette he had (what is it about kids and water play?), so we decided to do a simple science experiment. By dipping celery stalks in colored water, you can literally see water traveling up the celery!

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What Soda Does to Teeth

Why is soda bad for your teeth? My kids keep asking why they can't have more soda. The tooth fairy was kind enough to lend us some baby teeth for us to experiment with, and we got some very interesting results.

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