Preschool Science: Inflate a balloon without blowing in it.

To be honest, this is not totally "preschool" science, but my preschooler loves this experiment. He loves all science activities we've done in the past, but this one is by far his favorite one.

Recently I came in to possession of a wonderful science activities kit, complete with science measuring spoons, science tubes, density balls and a bunch of other science items, plus a book with 15 science experiments, which not only guides how to make cool science tricks, but also explains how they work.

The box states it is designed for kids of 9 years old and over, but my 3 year old loves science experiments, so once in a while we sit down and make some scientific magic happen with balloons, vinegar, density balls, syrup and other household items recommended in this guide. I have a few other books, which we've also tried, but this one became our favorite.

The trick with balloon has become Santino's favorite. We have done it so many times, that I already ran out of balloons once (the kit comes with 3 balloons included, and we used and re-used them all up), so I bought a bag of balloons just for this activity.

This is what the activity is about: pour about half a cup of vinegar in a plastic bottle, then put the funnel in the balloon, and add about a teaspoon of baking soda. Once the soda is in the balloon, put the balloon on the bottle, lift so that soda drops in the vinegar, and watch the balloon inflate. Actually, this looks pretty cool even to me, no wonder my son loves it.

Today Santino asked for a balloon, then he went to the kitchen, got a spoon, a funnel, and said to me: "get me some soda please; and vinegar". Once I got him what he asked for, he proceeded to pouring soda in the spoon, and tried adding it to the balloon. I helped him with that a little, but he did pretty well. I also showed him how to tap the funnel lightly with a spoon for the soda to go through the narrow neck. It gets stuck there.

I poured vinegar in the bottle, and after twisting the neck of the balloon, I put it on the bottle.

I let Santino un-twist the balloon and lift it for the soda to fall in the bottle with vinegar. And he just loves how the balloon starts growing! This is his moment! He gets very excited, and wants to repeat it again and again.

I guess, this is the child's way of learning, but I only repeated it 3 times today. At the moment it felt right, but now I feel guilty. I should've obliged and let him have his experiment as many times as he needs to see it.

Maybe tomorrow?