First Hand Experience

"Sid The Science Kid" is a children's television programme that teaches basic scientific principles in an 'easy to understand' method that appeals to young children. I stumbled upon this programme during the early days when I started as a full time mom. I found it to be very interesting and hoped that JS would like to watch it. However, to my disappointment, he did not really enjoy the show. Perhaps he was too young at that time as he just turned one. Nevertheless, when I spotted the series' DVD  at one of the leading  bookstores here about half a year later, I decided to buy two and let JS watch it again. 

This time, he started to show interest in the songs and I thought: This is a good start. And indeed it was. He began to watch the programme on a daily basis and a few months down the road, I noticed that he started to act like the characters! 

Soon he was picking up scientific terms being used in the programme. Instead of saying slide, he would say 'incline plane' and instead of see-saw, he would say 'lever'. 

He practically has memorised all the series that he has watched repeatedly over the past two years and one day a few weeks back, while he was helping his daddy in the garden, he suddenly thought of one of the experiments from the programme which was related to dirt (we call it soil but in the programme, they used the word dirt). 

Here's how the experiment goes. 

It was an episode about how we get rid of germs from our hands so that we do not get a cold. The teacher (Suzie) took out a tray of dirt for the children to play with so that their hands become dirty. 

So, here is JS, playing with some dirt. He suddenly thought of "the experiment" and runs into the house to get his magnifying glass. 

Oh! My hands are so dirty! What should I do?

In the experiment, the teacher told the children to wipe their hands with a tissue paper. 

Off he goes to the living room to grab himself a tissue paper and came out to the garden and wiped it in front of me. 

"Hmm. Let's check my hands again. Oh dear. They are still dirty!"

He thought again. In the experiment, the teacher then told the children to wash their hands with soap and warm water. 

So, off he goes to the bathroom to wash his hands with soap and water. 

"My hands should be really clean now. Ah, yes! They are clean!"

It may just be a simple experiment to us but for a four-year-old, it is a big achievement. He did an experiment. 

If you have preschoolers who are always curious about things around us, I strongly recommend you to let him or her watch this programme. It is not only entertaining but the presentation method is really good.