How to nurture a budding scientist

CHILDREN ARE NATURAL scientists and will happily embark on experiment  whatever the reason –from seeing how many bubbles they can make by blowing into a glass of milk through a straw, to seeing how long a spinning top will spin  on different textured surfaces. “It’s this natural sense of curiosity that leads children to make discoveries about the world and develop their understanding”, says Annette Smith from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. “And of course, the hands-on nature of science means it’s lots of fun, too”.

You don’t need lots of apparatus to encourage a building scientist; just giving children a broad bean to sprout an a window ledge will help them learn about photosynthesis. Of course, any child who loves cars will adore Richards Hammond’s Blast Lab (Dorling Kindersly, £14.99), which is filled with fun things to do –from creating jelly bean roots from beans to making cabbage dyes in a range of colours; you can make soap monsters and gooey volcanoes, too. For more scientific games, visit  www.planet-science.com which includes a Playbox area for preschoolers where they can learn about plant growth with a fun watering-can game.