FREE Summer Programs – Brain Games with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

My entire family is crazy about the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI). So when I heard about a special free program you can do anywhere, even though the MSI is based in Chicago, I just knew I had to tell you about it.

Research shows kids can lose one to three months of learning over the summer, called “Summer Brain Drain.” Rather than letting your child’s brain become mush over the summer, how about finding ways to keep them engaged with some free summer programs?

Prevent Summer Brain Drain!

To make it easier for us busy parents, the Museum of Science and Industry is hosting its Summer Brain Games online. The program is a great way to combat brain mush by keeping kids thinking and learning over the summer in a fun and engaging way.

Each week, the MSI’s online kit will feature an experiment or science challenge that can easily be performed at home with kids of all ages (and with a little adult supervision).

Visit www.msichicago.org/summerbrain now to register for the Summer Brain Games and download your FREE Summer Brain Games kit.

The first experiment we did was based off of Newton’s third law of motion. Say what? Basically, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The museum offered a terrific explanation, including video to help us visual learners (aka me!). In this experiment, we created balloon racers where the air escaping from the balloon propelled it forward. All I needed was some string, balloons, paper, scotch tape and hot air (mine) and we were ready to go. Check out the video below to see the experiment in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx9jEu4TrIY&w=560&h=315]

My boys absolutely loved racing their balloons. But, at the end of the day, they are still boys. So they started propelling the balloons at each other. Either way, they learned that the force of the air coming out of the balloons made them shoot forward — a pretty cool concept for a four year old and six year old to grasp.

Last week’s project was to grow a hydroponic garden. As I was explaining our next experiment, my six year old asked if the plants in our fish tanks are just like a hydroponic garden. I was stumped. Yep, he was right. We had been growing a hydroponic garden and didn’t even know it. He gets serious points for noticing the connection before I did. Our fish tanks have plants growing in them. We use the pebbles at the bottom on the tank just to keep the plants from floating aimlessly about the tank. He insisted I include a picture of his Beta fish and plants in this post.

Visit msichicago.org/summerbrain now to register for Summer Brain Games and download your free Summer Brain Games kit. As an added bonus, registering automatically gets you a pass to come to the Museum for free this summer.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. All opinions are strictly my own.