Science Night

So last night was our elementary school's science night. This means that parents show up with their kids and we bond over some simple experiments while a few teachers mill around and take photos.

I stayed with our daughter and hubby took our son.

Our experiments included making a paper clip "kite" and flying it with a magnet, creating a telephone from disposable cups and yarn, etc.

A quickly got bored with the simple kite idea and started testing the industrial magnet on random items. She thought it was pretty funny that she could pull her earlobes around by the earring. She discovered that the metal piece holding my purse strap together were magnetic.... she then started digging around in my purse to see what else she could test. She grabbed my cell phone and was slowly dragging the magnet across the touch screen (I was helping the child on the other side of me at this point, as his mother was busy discussing something of great importance with the lady across the table). Thankfully I was able to grab my phone from A in time and have a little discussion about how electronic gadgets and magnets don't mix.

She started singing "Red Solo Cup" when we made the telephone, and then was yelling into the cups when we were supposed to be testing how the sound traveled.

The finale was filling a balloon with carbon dioxide. We started by pouring vinegar into a water bottle. As A was reaching for the water bottle, she knocked the cup with vinegar in it right into my lap. Mmmm, I love it when I smell like pickles! She found a spare cup and managed to get it poured into the bottle this time. Next, we were to use the funnel to shake baking soda into a balloon. Of course there was already vinegar on the funnel, so the baking soda was sticking a bit. I was poking a pencil around to dislodge the clumps when A decided to help by squeezing the balloon. Which caused the baking soda to shoot out. All over my shirt. Sigh. We managed to refill the balloon, stretch it onto the water bottle (while holding the part with the baking soda off to the side) then shake it down into the vinegar. Cool, but A was disapointed that her balloon didn't inflate all that much, so as I was tying off the balloon, she was trying to shake more baking sode into the bottle (without using the funnel).

At this point I grabbed her hand and announced it was time to go, so I could spend the rest of the evening patting myself on the back for being a good parent.