Science Sunday - Touch

From time to time we chance upon a science book that fits Anna’s development age perfectly. When we read My Five Senses, she found it too simple while My Own Five Senses was over her head. I Can Tell by Touching is just right, and has a good story and a good vocabulary of sensations one can experience through the sense of touch. I can see how she incorporates what she reads through observations she makes unprompted, especially when she is out of the house. For example, she always touches these flowers on the way to the park because they are the fluffiest and softest flowers around, and she observed that grass is soft and prickly at the same time, so it’s a tie. Sometimes it takes a while to get somewhere with all the touching, the holding, the talking about things she finds interesting, but I know that at these moments her little mind learns most.

The book had a small experiment in the end that explained how our hands are more sensitive than other parts of our bodies. We took turns touching each other and trying to guess what it was and then played “mystery bag” recognizing objects by touch. Anna always enjoys games that have an element of surprise, so she had a great time with this activity. I hope to do more sensory play with her in the summer when  we can take some of the messier activities outside.

For more science for young children, visit Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.