The weather here in Missouri has been a little crazy for the past few weeks….ice, rain, snow, ice, more ice, snow again.  It has made for an exciting time not knowing if events will be cancelled due to the weather or not.  So how have we been passing the time?

Heathen Dad had fun pulling the kids up and down the hill in our backyard.  Well he had fun until he went splat while running down the hill.  Too bad I missed getting a picture of him going splat.

The kids (read Heathen Dad did much of the work) built a wonderful snowman in the front yard.  It has been fun watching him melt.  My son had fun coming up with ideas of how to slow down the melting process, but alas in the end Mr. Snowman is starting to look like some sort of abstract art piece made of snow.

How can a snowy day be turned into a day of science fun?  Oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless!  Here are just a few ideas…..

Examine snowflakes: Put a piece of dark colored construction paper in the freezer to chill.  We typically use black paper for more contrast.  Once the paper is cold, place it outside when it is snowing.  The paper will collect snowflakes and you will be able to closely examine the flakes.  We take out magnifying glasses to look at the structure of the flakes.

Experiment to see which turns to steam first when heated – snowflakes or crushed ice.  My daughter came up with this idea.  She was so proud of herself for coming up with a chemistry experiment.  We placed an equal amount of snow and crushed ice into pans and placed them on the stove.  Pretty easy experiment.

Construction with snow:  My son wanted to build in the snow, but alas, it was not good building snow.  This resulted in him deciding to research why snow is sometimes powder-like and other times will be great for building and snowballs.  He learned a lot about weather in a short period of time.

People often tell me that they have problems fitting science into their homeschool routine.  Science is everywhere.  Turn a snowy day into a science lab.  The activities will probably encourage research that will continue long after the snow is gone.