Science experiments involving food

Many of us had drilled into us “don’t play with your food” and as a parent, I don’t want my children to be ‘messing’ about with food at the table. However, and I think you can make a distinction between play and anti-social behaviour.

There are also many positives to playing with food. In fact, feeding experts recommend playing with food as a key learning strategy for babies.

When your baby smushes food onto their tray or into their hair, what they are doing is learning all about how it feels, how it smells, what happens if …

For those children who don’t like to touch food and avoid this messy stage, it can feel like a blessing. However, they may also be missing out on learning.

Current advice is for children as old as eight to go back to this stage if they skipped it, as it may still be holding back their eating.

If mess makes you shudder then it can be contained, for example, with overalls, with an oil cloth for the table and with plastic sheets underneath the chair. It also doesn’t have to be done while eating if that’s easier to cope with.

Playing with food in a more structured way is also fine and that is part of what I’m proposing via science experiments involving food.

I am also suggesting these as good ways to get older children into the kitchen and handling food. Any connection to food, particularly those children generally avoid, in a low pressure, fun way is positive.

As it’s school holidays, this is an excellent time to get a little more creative.

Science experiments involving food

1. Making butter — this evokes fond memories for me as my mum did this with my brother and I when we were young. Super simple to make!

i) Take a jar and add some fresh cream
ii) Shake the jar until the cream starts to solidify. This requires a LOT of shaking so it’s a great communal activity/ awesome for the testosterone fuelled 😉
iii) Pour off any liquid and the solid part left is butter and can be spread on bread or crackers.