One impossibly hot summer afternoon, Nico and I decided to go outside to play. We don't have a fan in the living room/play area, so we roamed into the side yard hoping to catch a breeze. After watching Nico sweat it out for a few minutes, a brilliant idea occurred to me.
I could turn the broiling day into a teachable moment! Nico already knew it was hot, he told me as much several times in both English and Spanish, so I came up with a fun way to cool him off without leaving the house and without wasting too much water.
I went inside and grabbed a milk carton that I had been saving for a spontaneous craft, and using scissors, a sharpie, and a stapler, I turned it into a "watering can" and a "water house"!
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| It's okay if the pitcher has holes in it! The point is for the little one to see and feel the water fall out |
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| The hole in the front is so that water can been seen going through the carton |
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| The flap on the side is so that the toddler can see the water pouring off onto the ground |
Once our supplies were assembled, I went inside and gathered water from the sink into a large pitcher.
That's when the real fun began!
Nico learned about pouring water, and that though it is tangible, it cannot be grabbed, only felt and contained. Of course I wasn't trying to explain those complicated concepts to my 23mo, he was content to figure it out in his own way.
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| Please excuse his naked lower half, we are still potty training =) |
He also learned that some things sink in water, while other things float, and that if you put enough force on an object in the water, you can push it to the bottom.
By the end of our little experiment, he was cooled down and soaked!
He ended up running free in his birthday suit without a care in the world, and the hot hot sun was long forgotten!
It was just another day of trying to keep my Gummy Bear from melting!
