What are your best mind blowers for kids under 5?

[cristince]

@mbinks89 This is also great to teach the importance of hand washing. Say the pepper is germs and show them how the pepper acts right after they wash their hands.

 

[digifriend]

@mbinks89 Cornflower and a bit of water mixed up. This mesmerised both me and the kids for a while.

Some more useful things like bake a cake and watch their minds blow as the random ingredients make something yummy. Bonus points for letting them lick the bowl when you are done

 

[abner2011]

@digifriend Then the science lesson! Non-newtonian fluids!

Whipping heavy cream makes it thicker (rheopectic, or thicker over time)

Ketchup gets thinner the more you shake it (shear thinning)

Cornstarch and water get thicker under stress (shear thickening)

Fun fact, children's Tylenol is thixotropic (gets thinner over time, reducing its viscosity). So does manuka honey and Greek yogurt.

Science dad out!

 

[jacem]

@abner2011 next level science dadding...put the non-newtonian fluid on a speaker cone and show them a stable inverted pendulum (sorry was catching up on my xkcd's before stopping in to daddit - that's the vibro-levitation and inverted pendulum effect)

 

[vesper818]

@abner2011 The thixotropic one sounds like watching paint dry in slow motion. “Children hate this one trick!” Would be the clickbait title, and for once it would be right.

 

[stevepritch]

@mbinks89 Get out a paper bag. Pull out an “invisible ball.” Throw it up and catch it in the bag. Snap your fingers while holding the bag so it sounds realistic. I was astonished when my dad did this. I was almost 10.

 

[townspa]

@stevepritch I think I'd be astonished too because I don't get it

 

[neannajo5]

@mbinks89 Buy a bunch of small cheap plastic dinosaurs. Give your kid a book about dinosaurs and tell him to pick anyone and you'll use your magic to make it. Hide the bag on the floorboard of the passenger seat while your child is in the backseat looking at the book. When he picks the dinosaur have him hand you the book and put it on the passenger seat and bend over to look as if you're studying it. Grab the same dinosaur out of the bag and hide it in your palm. Act like you're concentrating really hard and poof, you've just made a requested dinosaur out of thin air. At six my son is more skeptical but still thinks I'm magic.

 

[cindyr]

@mbinks89 This one’s also a little hard to describe and I can’t find a video of it but I will keep looking. Take a square paper napkin (or a paper towel that you’ve folded to be square, and twist each corner a few times so it’s twisted up and creates a little “leg.” Then drape/press the napkin over a lime or a lemon (so that it looks like a little bug with little napkin legs. Then if you poke it gently, it will lurch around unpredictably and looks pretty “alive.”

 

[clivesa]

@cindyr Had a bartender do that trick for me. Called it a “bar spider.” Had me cracking up

 

[kickthichphattiren689]

@mbinks89 Corn starch or potato starch in water, to make a non-Newtonian liquid. Loved playing with that as a kid.

The more I think back, though, the more I realise that the stuff we did back then probably wouldn't fly now. Like, when I was five or so, I made, at kindergarten, a hot air balloon out of a plastic bag, some metal wire and some cotton, and I pestered a kindergarten staff member until she relented, doused the cotton in kerosene per my instructions, and lit it on fire. It flew up and landed on the roof. I can think of at least five ways that wouldn't happen today.

 

[nina1125]

@kickthichphattiren689 I’ve seen it done with a tea light, not sure that’s really any safer lol. but they do have lanterns made for that kind of thing

 

[kickthichphattiren689]

@nina1125 Yeah, I was actually delighted to see them appear locally a few decades later. Or I suppose I had mixed emotions, because building them is fun and now children won't experience that. Yet another activity turned into a purchase.

 

[zafer]

@kickthichphattiren689 Yeah starting fires at the behest of 5yos is generally frowned upon these days lol

 

[kickthichphattiren689]

@zafer What can I say? The past was wild.

 

[exposingdarkness2009]

@mbinks89 Do the one where you make the salt shaker disappear. You know, the one where you put a napkin over the salt shaker and pull it kind of tight so it has the form of the salt shaker, then sneakily pull your arm towards your lap, let the salt shaker drop down on your lap, but keep the shape of the napkin the same. Then slam your hand down on the napkin.

 

[roman812]

@mbinks89 Blow out a lit candle, while it is still smoking hold the lit lighter over the smoke trail, the flame should jump back down to the wick and light the candle again

 

[joevic]

@roman812 What kind of witchcraft?!? I need to try this now.

 

[asmith2]

@mbinks89 “Hey, check this out. I can turn the street signs on and off.” Proceed to turn your car brights on and off. When it’s kind of dim but not dark out the effect works nicely.

 

[mbinks89]

@asmith2 Noted.