Book Review: Super Simple Science Experiments

August 6, 2022 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Kids of a certain age seem to love science experiments, but it can be difficult to come up with ideas for experiments off the top of your head.

Andrea Scalzo Yi has collected 100 easy setup science experiments you can make with supplies you probably already have in your house in her book Super Simple Science Experiments for Curious Kids.

The book is divided by types of experiments: those involving liquids, solids, gasses, and light, color and sound.

Experiments are rated by simplicity level on a scale of 1 to 3. Materials and instructions are listed, as well as how and why the experiment works and variations you can try.

These projects can be done with parental help even by little kids, but older kids can handle doing some of them on their own.

A random sampling of projects includes:

fluffy slime
making a mobius strip
drinkable density experiment
wall marble run
spinning pencil
potato skewer balance
DIY fire extinguisher
wet and dry painting
make a sunset
sound you can see

Lots of these experiments are classics but there are some you might not have seen before. This book is a great reference for when kids want to do something but you don’t have anything particular in mind. It also allows you to slip in some science whenever you want. You can talk about what kids think will happen when you try different experiments, and because why they work the way they do is included in the book, you’ll be able to explain it to kids even if you don’t remember your own science classes!

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 100 projects. Published in July 2022 by Page Street Publishing. Suggested retail $22.99. Buy on Amazon.

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Easy Pen and Paper Games for Road Trips and Beyond

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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