Science Experiment

This week at our house, Petra had her first impromptu science experiment.

It was a relaxing Sunday; I was trying to get lunch fixed before laying the children down for a nap. Now first of all, you must understand that usually this time is not relaxing. The bad thing about Sunday is by the time we get home from church, it is already past nap time. Then add on to this the complications of having to cook and eat, and usually the children end up laying down about 2 hours past their usually nap time. This whole equation looks something like this: hungry + tired = CRANKY and screaming.

But this Sunday was different. Jasper had fallen asleep on the car ride home. And Petra appears to be getting old enough that an hour here or there in change doesn’t really affect her moodiness.
So while I was making a quick lunch of spaghetti, Petra wandered off and found a box of tea in my overflow stash. Quietly she lay on the floor and began the process of trying to take the plastic off the box. This took a good 5 minutes. I was absolutely relishing the quiet time. By the time she did open the box, I figured I better take it away from her so that I didn’t have a zillion tea bags thrown on the floor. So, I swooped in and grabbed the box, leaving her with one tea bag to investigate.

She looked a little confused as she studied it. She took off the paper. She tried to open it. I am sure she wondered the purpose behind it all. So I grabbed two clear glasses, filled them both with warm water, and sat her down to investigate further. She dipped and dipped the tea down in one glass and we talked about the changes in the water. Then we compared the two glasses —the one with the clear water, and the one with the stained water. And then we tasted the difference between the two. It was all in all a very simple, but fun experiment for a two-year-old and her mom.