Days of You and Me: Day 14, Ice

Among the many creative activities I included for Annabelle’s and my “30 days of you and me,” those that deal with observation and the scientific method seem most like the beginnings of homeschooling to me.  In the past, I’d thought that our family would commit to homeschooling our children; then, when Annabelle showed an interest in going to school (she noticed that our neighbors’ children attend school everyday . . . including the toddlers), I decided to look into preschools that appealed to my and my husband’s educational values and that seemed in line with how Annabelle might want to spend a couple hours each week.  Ultimately, we selected a play based school that Annabelle and I toured together during which time she told me, when it was time to go home, that I should go and leave her there so that she could stay and play.  That did it for me.  We decided we’d give preschool a whirl after that.

Still . . . after planning and setting up our “30 days” and seeing how much she is creating, doing, and learning, I wonder how Annabelle’s schooling will unfold (and I realize that her path may at some point include formal education while at other times resemble that of what is collectively termed “unschooling”).  When she begins preschool this September, I realize that she may indeed love her teacher, love the other students, love being in a class that is a different place (than her home) . . . or maybe not.  I really do not know what outcome I’d prefer; what I do know, at this stage of the game, is that I want for my daughter to love to learn.  I never want to see a vacant look in her eye when it comes to experiencing life and making discoveries (admittedly, sometimes life is difficult and there are always trying times, but what I’m pointing to here is an awareness that many children, as they grow older, begin to dread learning . . . avoid it, but do it anyway because it is required of them).  I want for Annabelle to seek out what interests her and come upon each moment as though it were new (because really,all moments are).

In the meantime, she and I have the rest of the summer, mostly 2 months, before she attends school.  Our 30 days, however, may extend beyond the summer and become something else . . . this I am sure of.

On our 14th “day of you and me,” Annabelle and I made and melted ice.  Below are a few photos of our experience and what she observed:

To make ice, you need water.  I asked her to pour equal amounts of water into 2 cups, which I marked room temperature and frozen.

Annabelle loves pouring water; she’s long been fascinated by the way it moves from container to container . . . to be honest, I notice other children, as early as 6 months old, find a special affinity for water (though I realize not all do) . . . Annabelle learned how to pour water from a pitcher to a cup sometime between 15 and 18 months (an activity from our Montessori playgroup).

After she filled each cup, we placed one cup on the kitchen counter, which I emphasized was our “warm” cup of water.  Then I asked Annabelle to place the other cup, marked frozen, into the freezer.  We called this cup our water in “cold.”  I told her we’d wait a few hours and then to check to see what’d happened to both cups.

After lunch, she pulled the “cold” cup from the freezer and . . .

discovered that when you turn a cup of water that’s been in the freezer upside down, the water stays put.  “Wow!”

Then we set a timer for 15 minutes.  We’d return to the kitchen to check our cups and see what was happening.  Annabelle noticed that the cup of the water on the counter wasn’t really changing (not to the naked eye anyway, right?), but that the cup of water that’d been frozen, which she knew was now ice, had changed . . . the chunk of ice dropped from the top of the cup after 15 minutes and made a loud pound against our observation pan.

We placed the ice beside the cup and again observed what was happening to the ice . . . then I asked Annabelle to see what’d happen when we turned the cup of room temperature water over.  As you’d expect, the water spread out evenly across the pan.

For at least 3 more intervals of 15 minutes, we returned to observe our pan of ice and our pan of water.  Eventually the ice melted back to water and we talked about why that happened.

I have to be honest.  I really don’t think she “got” it.  But what I do know is that she now seems to understand that our freezer makes water and food stay cold, and that water, when placed in the freezer from breakfast to lunch, somehow turns into ice.  Heck, I think that’s pretty profound for a 2 year old.