BASF Science Lab 2017: MuffinThe Young Scientist

JED love science.

They love science experiments which we used to do a lot of even before they started proper science in school. When they were able to read and we inherited a whole bunch of kid science magazines, they devoured it and there were magazines all through the house. All. Over. The. Place.


I credit the science programme they did in kindy for this early curiosity and I love that they surprise me with random bits of information.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if it helps them in school but the point is in the fun.

It's Muffin's turn to be mad about science.

His favourite things about science.
1. Experiments.
The most fun ingredients for experiments are baking soda, detergent, vinegar. Lots of fizzing, lots of foaming and very very clean bathroom floors after that.

2. Muffin also loves Bill Nye the Science Guy. Bill Nye is irreverent, physically comedic and makes it over the top hilarious. There's an episode on life cycles that he loves and watches ad nauseum and chuckles when Bill Nye goes "Birth, Life, Death!"

3. Science magazines and books
All over the house, there are science comics and books. And when I mean, all over the house, it is everywhere, under the bed, under the pillow, in the bathroom, all over the dining table, everywhere. But he's constantly reading, thinking and popping up with weird questions that I now deputise his brother and sister to deal with.

4. More experiments!
We sometimes get the opportunity to go for science camps and labs. The twins went BASF Kids Lab last year and we brought Muffin too but he hid behind Packrat most of the time. He was intimidated by his siblings being there and able to answer all the questions, he was intimidated by all the older kids there that he didn't want to do any of the experiments.

This year, we were invited to the preview again. Since it was smack in the middle of exams for the two who actually do study science, I sent Muffin alone with his friend. Out of the shadows of his siblings and with his trusty best friend, the two boys had a rocking good time.

They got to dress like researchers, they got to record their findings and make oobleck (which is ALWAYS ALWAYS fun) and they got to meet Dr Bubbles; who in Muffin's opinion was Bill Nye!

Dr Bubbles a.k.a. Bill Nye!

Muffin wants to do the Discovery Science Camp during the June break like his siblings did. I'm saving that one though, when I need him in 'day-care' during a vacation and this June, we don't need that yet. He's also advocating for the BASF Kids' Lab to all his friends because he discovered there's a repeat session of what he did in June. This child, if he can't be a scientist, can sell things next time. Quite the marketer. 

So for those who have sciencey kids and want a day of science activity during the coming break, sign up and make oobleck and meet Dr Bubbles!

These spots go fast though so make like the wind and sign up.

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Birds and the Bees Part 1

T'was inevitable that at some point, the twins were going to ask how babies were made.

This happened last night. In bed, just before they went to sleep. It started with Jordan lamenting that she didn't want to get pregnant or give birth because it was painful. And my telling her that it was okay to feel that now and she might change her mind later.

It's amazing that even at 8, they could fathom that accidents do happen because her anxious reply was concern about what would happen if they forgot they didn't want a baby and accidentally kissed and as a result, she got pregnant.

She missed a couple of steps there.

That's when I decided it was time that I took them through some basics. In that split second, I decided that I had to be as truthful and as informative as possible.

1. So I used the right terms. There was no couching of genitalia in more cutesy terms that we do on occasion use (though I try to be evasive here).

2. I laid down the ground rules.
a. Girls and boys have anatomy that work together to create a baby. But that doesn't happen till after marriage. Underline, underline, super bold, with exclamation marks.
b. Since the boy parts are more obvious, the definite curiosity must be tempered with the fact that asking a girl where her specific parts are could lead to very dire consequences; ranging from getting slapped to getting arrested for indecent propositioning.

3. I would explain the processes and the parts involved and talk about how to keep safe. (While I do firmly in abstinence, I want to be sure that if they chose any other path, parental wrath and chastity belts notwithstanding, they needed to be safe)

4. I would also explain where we stood as a Christian family.

I didn't quite manage to cover every bit of it. We never made it to the actual process of how a baby was made. What I had not counted on was so much laughter that it was hard to go on. There were obviously questions and here's the 8 year old's toilet humour laced FAQ.

Q. So I pee out sperm???
A: No you don't. You use the same equipment but different things can come out of it.

Q. What happens if pee came out into the woman instead of sperm?
A. You would have a partner who would be extremely pissed off with you (pun totally intended, which they actually got and sent them into greater gales of laughter) and might never ever want to let you go near her again.

Preamble:  I had explained that it was also something that ought to happen between 2 people who loved one another.
Q: What happens if you want to make love but not want a baby?
A: Then there are things that you can use, like a condom. (They had seen a condom before in a coke-Mentos experiment).
Observation: So you use something like a plastic bag to make sure the sperm doesn't swim out?
A: Uhm, yes.
Observation: Then you just throw away the plastic bag? Do you have to tie a rubber band around it so it won't spill into the bin?
A: Well, it's not exactly a plastic bag but it works the same way and yes, you'll have to tie it up to throw it away. That's only polite.

Q: It's like poking right? So won't it hurt?
A: It would hurt if it isn't done properly.

By which time, they were both convinced that copulating was going to be painful, troublesome and required the use of plastic bags.

I did make them both swear not to talk about this in school because knowing them, something would get lost in translation and calls from exasperated teachers or annoyed parents would be likely to follow.

There will probably have to be a part 2 because we never got to the actual bit of how the baby is made. Time to take out the book that I have called "How babies are made.".

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Surprising Us

The twins have such a busy week in school that we generally try not to do very much on the weekend. It's time for them to wind down, chill and do what they want. It is also the much awaited TV time though thankfully, they do choose to do other things apart from sitting in front of the TV. And with this free time, they roam the house and discover things that they get into and occasionally, it is so out of left field, it surprises us.

Jordan
We found Jordan stretched out on our bed reading to herself with a note pad beside her. The words that she could not read, meaning she could not pronounce went on the list.  So words like Maurice (from Beauty and the Beast) and candelabra appeared on the list. It's one step away from reading with a dictionary which I think we all did at one point or the other. But unlike me, she's doing it without any sort of prompting.

Evan
One of Evan's favourite foods is spaghetti. In fact, anything with meat sauce and carbs. So, spaghetti, shepherd's pie or hash browns with meat sauce and cheese to top it off. Because he asks for it so often and frankly, everyone is tired of cooking it for him, Packrat asked half jokingly if he wanted to learn how to cook it, himself. Surprisingly, he said yes. He gave up precious TV time (while it was on instead of it misbehaving or something) to learn from his dad. And now, he knows the order in which the ingredients go in. He just needs to do it again to get used to the heat over the stove.

Muffin
For some strange reason, Muffin loves the music from Les Miserables. We thought it was because he was bored in his grandparents' car (that was where the CDs were) that caused him to hum along to the songs. But when Packrat put on the 10th anniversary concert, he was riveted and refused to have the channel changed, despite repeated pleas from his bored siblings.

Thanks to these little discoveries that kept them busy, I managed to take a glorious two hour nap, only waking up to the credits of Star Wars blaring and Jordan blaring on top of it that she did.not.want.to.watch.Star.Wars. That was the end of (what is in my book) the long peace. But it was good while it lasted.

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Capturing Wonderment

When I was on vacation with my mom and my brother, we inadvertently started talking about our childhood memories. What struck me was that the memories that we had were mostly about things that weren't really meaningful to anyone else but us.

Anyway, since this blog is primarily for JED (for me too because my memory sucks), I'm going to endeavour to do a series of snapshots capturing some of the things that they might like to have memories and even photographs of.

Starting with things that made them go "WOW" in a hushed tone and be silent throughout the entire experience.

That was Muffin's reaction when we took him to an open field near where I work. Every evening and more so on Saturday mornings, there are these guys flying remote control planes. These planes were slightly under 3 feet long. The guys obviously had some part in building them, they tinker with them and the look on their faces when they manoeuvre the planes up into the sky is the same, unabashed look of wonderment that Muffin had on his face. They flew them as if the planes were part of the Red Arrows, flying inverted, doing barrel turns and twists in the air with shouts and whoops of glee.

Muffin was quiet and his face upturned the whole time. He asked no questions. He just watched. And slowly edged closer and closer to the nearest one of the guys tinkering with his plane. He didn't want to go. And when we did, he asked if he could bring Evan and Jordan back to see the planes. 

An old guy quipped to another as we were about to leave, 'Fly the plane low. Then you can see the beauty of it and enjoy it. Don't fly it too high, otherwise you might as well watch planes take off from Changi.'

Point taken.
Sense of wonderment? Check.

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Hijacked post! (or a visit to the Science Centre)

Packrat has the kids every Saturday morning while I'm at work.
All 3 of them. And here he is, writing about what he does while I'm at work. You will see how the Mommy rules don't count when Mommy isn't around i.e. Incriminating evidence of Muffin scarfing down a hash brown. But who am I to say anything when I'm not there?

For Father's Day, the Daddy Matters group invited mum bloggers to allow their husbands to "take over" our blogs and say anything they want for one post. Here's Packrat hijacking my blog.
-----
I've never really forgotten the Singapore Science Centre. I was brought there as a kid in Primary school and I remember being fascinated by the various exhibits that we got to interact with. I remember a pin impression exhibit that I was particularly obsessed by because of the weird feeling you got when you put your hand under it and I remember that being the one thing that I kept going back to.

Good times.

So I was thrilled when JED were finally old enough to be brought to the science centre and curious enough to geek out about the exhibits like I used to.

Boy, have things changed.

The Science Centre has upgraded itself completely and I'm glad to say that it's still a lot of fun.

Of course, there's a McDonald's there now where there is the obligatory hotcakes meal to begin the day with. And we had the great company of JED's Uncle Mark and Auntie Sylvia in tow, who they promptly took advantage of.

The focus of the day was the new Megabugs exhibition (On till the 18th of August, 2013). As has been the case with JED, Giant Bugs? Yes, Please!

The kids all got age appropriate activities books and they dived in immediately.

There was an interesting exhibit just outside of the annex hall where there were insect inspired fashion designs. Very cool.

We were taken through a "time tunnel" which brought us to prehistoric sized insects which both fascinated JE while making Muffin a little uncomfortable.

Well, they didn't lie about the mega bit of the megabugs. The exhibits were big!

While the exhibits did capture the kids' imaginations, the highlight for me was the guide that took us through it all. A retiree volunteer at the Science Centre, he was an engineer by trade but also a lifelong learner that supplemented what he had studied about the exhibits with nuggets of information that he had learned from other visitors to the exhibits. I was inspired by the man who had such a great passion for learning and teaching and I could see that beyond all the cool "stuff" that the Science Centre had for kids to play with, it was a place for learning...and I could see no better guide than the gentleman who took us through.

He engaged the older kids and was very informative about the various bugs that we saw there. If you have an opportunity to catch him there, ask him about the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches or Stick Insects. He's quite the treasure trove of information.

All in all, the kids had a grand time going to the Science Centre. And as a father, I'm glad that I got to share this with them. I'm also glad to say that there's still a sense of wonder that bubbles to the surface when I enter the hallowed halls.

Technorati Tags: JED, JED, Mega Bugs, Fathers' Day

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Make weapons for peace

I am a pacifist. I am raising JED to be that, as much as I can. The rule is that we have no guns in the house. They have ended up fashioning their own guns out of hangers and ice cream sticks and what not.

I did not think that I would be running a weapons factory out of my house ever. Until this morning. All in the name of peace.

I was rudely awakened this morning by Evan who was complaining that his brother and sister had taken his catapult.

Blurry eyed, I asked "What catapult?" I didn't recall okaying a catapult in the house.

Apparently, he brought one home from Science yesterday. It was made out of ice cream sticks. It looked ingenous, harmless and a lot of fun. It also didn't look that difficult to make so I endeavoured to make another one or two so that the fighting would stop.

I ended up making 3 because they were fun to make, took less than five minutes and by making 3 of the same, it would be a better guarantee that an arms race wouldn't develop between the 3 warring factions.

All that was required was 10 ice cream sticks per catapult, 4 rubber bands,  a bottle cap glued on with some super glue and some green beans.

For posterity, here are the easy-peasey, lemon squeezy instructions.

1. Band 8 ice cream sticks together at each end.
2. Band the remaining 2 ice together on one end.
3. Use fingers to pry the two sticks apart.
4. Shove the wedge of 8 sticks as far in as you can get it.
5. Use 1 rubber band and band it diagonally where the 2 sets of sticks intersect.
6. Repeat on the other diagonal to form an X.
7. Use super glue and glue the bottle cap on, leaving a tiny bit of space behind the bottle cap to launch whatever is in the bottle cap.
8. Leave to dry.

We left the house early and went downstairs for a test launch before the bus came. Green beans were the choice of ammunition.

Evan learnt very quickly the physics behind it; that he had to hold down the other end of the catapult lest the entire contraption went flying with the green beans.

There was great glee as they loaded and launched their beans at Mommy who was trying to take photographs of them. I think I still have some in my hair somewhere. I just heard one hit the ground and roll away into some dark corner under my desk.

Beans on the launchpad.

Not surprisingly, Jordan and Evan brought theirs to school for Show and Tell. Jordan wanted to bring her ammo as well but I told her she was going to lose them in her bag. She could use other forms of ammo when she got to school. I just hope it's not something hard that can hurt some other kid and cause the school to call me and request "Please Mrs Tan, don't make weapons of mass destruction for the children". Muffin couldn't care less, abandoned his weapon, found a stick and promptly beat a bush into bald submission.

But it served its purpose. There was no more fighting. They developed an alliance amongst themselves as they aimed to pelt Mommy with as many green beans as possible. There was cooperation between them, as Jordan taught Muffin how to launch his green beans in the right direction and they all shared ammo amongst themselves.

Now, to go back and visit the live firing range in a few days to see if dozens of little seedlings have sprouted.

Trying to link this to SANSES' Talkative Thursday but the link don't work!


Technorati Tags: JED, Creative Play

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The Casanova and the Runaway Bride

The twins are at an extremely precocious age where they know more than they understand. And in our world where kids grow up very quickly, they are as well, much as we try to slow it down. In school, they are exposed to ideas and concepts beyond age and maturity.

One thing that they talk about is boyfriends and girlfriends and marriage.

Marriage is something that is a big deal to Jordan especially. She thinks it's all about the the gown, the veil and the pretty flowers. She loves watching our wedding video and wants to be pretty like Mommy. While I am flattered, I am happy for her to wait many, many more years. Anyway, that's one of her favourite role-playing characters. Her grandma provides her with a whole lot of props. Tulle, dried flowers and long skirts.

Evan, while he is not as enamoured about getting married the way Jordan is, has his own ideas about marriage and weddings as well. He talks about the girls he wants to marry and it seems to be a revolving door of girls.

For the most part we are amused and play along.

Part 1.
We have been told by someone in the twins' school that Jordan walks into the hall everyday hand in hand with a boy that is neither of her brothers. When we asked her about it, she said he had asked her to marry her. When we asked her what was her answer, her response was that she couldn't remember. Her bus mates however have told their parents that the boy asked her to marry him and she said yes. So the girl cannot remember that she'd agreed to marry a guy, but the rest of the world knows?

Part 2.
When Packrat asked her a few days later if she is still going to marry the 'bus boy', she said no. When asked if she had told him, she said she had forgotten.

Well, I guess if the girl cannot remember she accepted a wedding proposal, she would be most likely not be able to remember that she's left the poor boy at the altar.

 

These were taken when Jordan was much younger. But the predilection is still a strong one!

 

Then there's Evan.

With all the talk with Jordan and her 'wedding proposal', we did not want to leave him out. So we asked him if he had any idea whom he wanted to marry. He rattled off 5 names. We told him he can only marry one and that would he would have to stick to her. He paused for a minute and he agreed. We asked him how he was going to pick, his answer was immediate. "Get all 5 girls to scissors-paper-stone. Who win, will marry me." He has also told me that the girl he wanted to marry last year, he cannot; because he wants to be a scientist and she a doctor. People who have different jobs cannot marry. Social engineering at its best. That connundrum, I did undo for him though. But for the most part, he is tres confident and full of male ego with no concept of the girls saying no. When asked where he was going to live after he got married, he said a hotel. It all sounded a little sordid.

Packrat thinks he will be the charmer that every girl wants to be with, with those big eyes and the sensitive soul. And Jordan will be the one who, because of her nonchalance, will make the boys chase her harder.

None of that inspires confidence in him. He fantasises about getting a shotgun and getting our boys trained at sniper/ shotgun school to keep the boys from banging at the castle gates. My response to that is, while we are dreaming, that we should have a moat filled with crocodiles and piranhas and pull up the drawbridge when the boys come a-knocking.

For Evan and Muffin, I haven't figured out how to protect him from getting his heart trampled  but there seems to be double standards here. While Packrat is able to harbour his gun-toting fantasises, he has outrightly banned me from rolling my eyes at the choices of my sons.

But seriously, the kids are growing up too quick and while we kid and tease them about it, we've spent time also putting it into their heads that all these things are not to happen till they are in their 20s and that when they do choose mates, they can't just go for the "looks handsome/ pretty" variety. We know they are too young to understand most of it but it's not stopping the naggy parent in us.

JED can also be very sure that the contents of this post will surface in some way or other in the speeches that will be made at their weddings, after Papa and Mommy have put away the shot guns and retrieved the eye balls after the massive eye-rolling.

Technorati Tags: JED, growing up

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Curiosity

Evan's favourite past time, if we allowed him to, is to pick up sticks, dried leaves, seeds and play with soil.

While it is definitely unhygienic,  he has learnt to make very insightful observations and ask questions that many a time, I cannot answer.

His favourite books are information books. His favourite publisher, DK. The first words that he learnt to read were the names of planets. 

He is a real geek and is insatiable in his quest for answers.

I just hope that there will always be someone or somewhere he can get answers from.

Technorati Tags: Twins, Curiosity, Pre-schoolers

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Sunday science experiments

We discovered a whole new way of playing with the kids. We have to credit Evan's dogged insistence that we do this experiment. He has recently got it into his head that he wants to become a scientist and loves the idea that scientists spend all their time doing experiments. And once, in a supermarket, he picked up a Coca Cola can and shook it. That elicited great chiding from both Packrat and myself with the warning that the can would explode.

That got him hooked. He wanted to see the Coke can explode. I did a mini version of it with them one rainy day with some Mentos sweets. He didn't stop talking about it and in his own way, he was always investigating and testing his hypothesis (that Coca Cola was the most explosive drink ever), asking us, every time he saw a canned drink on a billboard whether it was more or less explosive than the Coca Cola we fizzed and foamed.

So Packrat and I promised the experiment on a grand scale. It required a trip to the supermarket, the stationery store and drawing up some data record sheets. All this while, the boy couldn't sit still and his infection bled off on his not so investigative sister. 

By the time we were ready, we had
1. 5 bottles of drink of varying fizziness.
a. Coca Cola (Original)
b. Sprite
c. 100 Plus (the boy was most displeased because he wanted H20)
d. A&W Root Beer
e. Fanta Grape.
2. 3 tubes of Mentos minus one because Mommy was hungry.
3. Data sheets which required them to
a. Write down the name of the drink bottle
b. Circle 1-5 to measure how much it exploded (1 being small explosion and 5 was volcanic)
c. State at the bottom after everything was done which one had the biggest explosion.
d. State at the bottom after everything was done which one had the smallest explosion.

We did it on Sunday, with JED's cousins so 5 kids, each got to pick a drink bottle and Packrat would drop 3 mints into the bottle.   

Chief Researcher and Assistant

Our hypothesis was that Coke would fizz and explode the most with 100 Plus being the most pathetic. We were right. But we were surprised by the in between results, that Sprite gave Coke a really good fight and Fanta and Root Beer were a notch less fizzy than the leaders but way more than the paltry 100 Plus.

Evidence

The children loved it, were very earnest about collecting data although Evan had preconceived notions about the number he wanted to allocate the drink regardless of how much it fizzed. That, we will need to convince him to shrug off before he becomes a real scientist.

What surprised us was Jordan. While she was muted in her excitement, she was very conscientious about recording her data and making sure that it tallied with what she saw.

Making observations

Data collection

Even the little ones had fun. The little cousin called it volcano explosions and Muffin kept shouting every time the bottle foamed and clapping his hands with glee. We think this might become a regular feature. The twins haven't talked about it and Evan has gone on to imagine his next experiment. And for the times when we can't figure out what to do, I'm ordering this book!

The helpers in the house were the only ones who were tsk-ing away, not so much because we made a mess; we made the children flush out the garden patch that got over the overflow. It was more that we were wasting precious drinks that they loved. So they took the remaining half bottles, even if it tasted a little bit minty and we gave them the remainder mints to mollify them!


Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, Learning through play, Learning science

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