Remember “Mr. Wizard” from when you were a kid? No? He was this guy on TV who would do simple science experiments with kids.  I loved this show and watched it obsessively, much like every other kids science show.  “Newton’s Apple” with Ira Flatow? My heart still goes pitter-pat when I hear him hosting “Science Friday” on NPR.

Mr. Wizard

There was one experiment he did in which you mixed cornstarch and water together and played around with it.  I recently found a book of science experiments for toddlers and found this in it. Remembering how much fun it had been, I did this the other day with the boy.

It’s pretty cool stuff.  Cornstarch suspends in water, making a substance that is a liquid when poured or manipulated slowly but will act like a solid when hit.  You can roll it into a ball but it will melt a second later.

We had a blast, talking about what is liquid and what is solid. And, really, it doesn’t make too much of a mess.

Okay, maybe by your standards it makes a terrific mess.  But it really isn’t hard to clean up at all.

I’ve realized that my daughter gets a bit of a short shrift in these posts.  Truthfully, it’s partly because she hasn’t been doing all that much.  She’s wickedly adorable:

And as noted before will eat anything put in front of her.  She is starting to sign a bit–she’s got “fan” “milk” and “more” down pat. We’re working on a few others.  Her brother had over 100 signs at his peak, and it was really fun to be able to communicate with him that way. She also says “mama” and babbles a lot. We’re still working on the whole movement thing.  She has figured out how to get around by a combination of rolling and spinning, but isn’t really all that interested in crawling yet.  Who knows? She may surprise us yet and head directly for walking.