- Stones
Children naturally collect things; get a shoebox, put your child's name on it, label it "MY STONES," and just step back. Resist the urge to identify and label everything your child finds.
If you are feeling particularly venturous, go on a rattleback quest. If you know the general shape you are looking for, you can find one through trial and error; the search is a good afternoon's play in itself. Spin it, it slows down, wobbles, then reverses direction! The physics behind it has stumped doctoral students, but your child knows it's magic.
While looking for the perfect stone, you can grab some skipping stones as well. Keep them in your skipping stone bag. You'll need them later.
- Magnet
We are surrounded by magnetic waves--this might not be news to you anymore, but I bet it thrilled you when you were a child.
I can flip magnets all day long--they are that much fun. Kids will wander around all day seeing what is magnetic, and what is not. They do not need help discovering basic magnetic properties. For some extra fun, though, consider these tricks.
You can make your own. Magnetize a needle by stroking it along a magnet--after a few minutes, the needle is magnetized, a miracle in itself (and one children love--if your child decides to spend the rest of the day magnetizing needles, making needle sculptures, well, let him play).
Push the needle through a tiny piece of cork. (If you really want to increase the wow factor, gently, oh so gently, place the bare needle on the water--if done just right, the needle will float. You can use a fork to make it easier. Or, if you want to cheat a bit, rub the needle on a candle first.)
The floating needle will line itself up with the surrounding magnetic fields--outside it will line up with the earth's field. Inside, it may be a little wacky from all the artificially generated fields from electric appliances.
If you buy a compass, buy a decent one. You can get one for under $5 (American). It will last for years.
Another fun game with magnets, though a bit tough on the television, is holding a magnet to a screen and watching the rainbow colors as the magnet distorts the electronic radiation emanating from the box (ah, just think of 4 hours a day of these beams directed towards your child's brain). If the television is left with a permanent color distortion, well, consider it a bonus!
- Gyroscope
Remember spinning tops? Wrap up the top with a string, then throw the top as you pull the string, and the top would dance on its point. Some fancy, larger tops had plungers you could push up and down to get them spinning. Some tops (e.g., dreidels), could be spun with the snap of two fingers.
Even more fun is the gyroscope. The Tedco original classic from 1917 (and still available for under $10) demonstrates "mysterious" forces. You can balance it on a string, on your nose, or even the dog (if he would just hold still). Try turning the gyroscope as it spins--you will feel tremendous resistance in some positions.
For big fun, grab a bicycle wheel, and mount it on an axle so that you can hold it from either side as your partner gets the wheel spinning. You can balance the wheel on its axle at amazing gravity-defying angles.
(These "mysterious" forces are very real, and kill hundreds of motorcyclists annually who do not know how to countersteer.)
- Mason jar with a lid
The uses are all too obvious to a child--minipond, insectorium, ant farm, drinking glass, beecatcher, seascope, noisemaker, vision changer.
Children like playing with glass. It makes a great chink sound when struck, it's clear enough to be useful, yet distorts light rays just enough to be fun. (Ever wonder why children put the jar right up to their eyeballs then clumsily walk around, sometimes into walls? It's fun! Try it!)
Plastic will not do--it scratches, does not clink, is not nearly as clear as glass, and plastic reminds children that they are lesser people than adults. Glass has an element of danger and responsibility plastic cannot match. Glass jars end their lives spectacularly!
Any jar could do, but the classic mason jars have several advantages over the leftover mayo jar. The mason jar is rugged--takes a bounce off the ground without (usually) breaking; the mason jar is squarish, making it easier for little hands to grab; the mason jar has a lliquid measurement scale built in the glass; and, best of all, the mason jar has molded patterns of fruits on it, giving it some texture and warmth.
- Blocks
Stack them, knock them down. Throw them, chew them, bang them together. They're still fun even when you're in your forties. You can make your own. They do not need to be fancy, they need not interlock, and anything created with them must be knocked down before sunset.
Blocks advance spatial reasoning, increase dexterity, and (most important) are big fun! Watch campers build their fires, setting up elaborate structures "to maximize airflow" or "enhance convective currents"--see them smile as they build? It's all about the blocks!
Under the same category, consider tangrams, Jacob's ladder, Lincoln logs, and Legos.
- Bubbles
Ever watch a child meticulously form a bubble on her tongue, then try to blow it off? Over and over again, she curls her tongue, makes the bubble, trying to coax it off the tip of her tongue before it breaks. More likley than not, some adult will tell her to stop it unless she is by herself.
Splurge---spend two bits on a bottle of bubbles: cheap, easy, and great exercise. Watch children as they stare at a single bubble, watching the iridescent patterns change, then appear startled as the lovely sphere suddenly disappears in a tiny rainbow spray.
Make a giant loop from a coat hanger, and try to make giant bubbles!
- Bag o' lenses
A magnifying glass enlarges a child's view of the world. It also gives her another symbol of adult power, the ability to make fire. It doesn't take long for some children to learn how to burn holes in anything combustible (including, alas, bugs).
If you hold the magnifying glass a few inches from a plain wall, you can focus an upside-down, live, color "video" of life as it happens. If you hold it near a monitor or television, the screen breaks up into red and green and blue dots.
Get two magnifying glasses together, and you can make a telescope.
Add a prism, and now you can walk "upside-down," or make lovely rainbows. Find an old polarizer sunglass lens. Add some mirrors. <>p>
Lenses are cheap--you can find surplus stores online. Order a grab bag. Even if you do not know what to do with them, your child will.
(Please be very careful with children and sunlight--it does not take long to blind a curious child staring at the sun with a homemade scope, or even sunglasses. Children can hear things literally--sunglasses can easily be understood to mean glasses made to look at the sun.)
That's the short list: add string, litmus paper, a spaldeen ball, vinegar and baking soda, buckets, pine cones, water, paper, marbles, seeds, crayons, acorns, paper cups, wax paper, popsicle sticks, dirt, pots and pans, clay, and yes, a little boredom. Your children will thank you.
