Science and religion are on a collision course in my household.

Religion. Science. Are they independent or intertwined? How exactly do you explain the confluence of the two subjects to three children under age 6, especially when they’re the ones who bring it up?

Naturally, I explained the evolution/creation issue as well as I could, thoroughly confusing my kids in the process. The screenplay goes thusly:

Scene: A father and his three kids are driving to a park in a late-model SUV

SIX-YEAR-OLD: Hey Dad, I have a question. Who were the first people?

DAD: Well, that’s a good question, babe. So, if you read the Bible, it says that the first two people were a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. God made them first.

But, if you talk to a scientist, he or she might tell you that the first people came from monkeys. That’s known as evolution.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD: Wait. Monkeys are people?!

DAD: No, but long, long, long ago, monkeys started to kind of change into people.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD: So when I was born I was a monkey?! Cool!

SIX-YEAR-OLD: Ugh. You were never a monkey.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD: Dad just said …

DAD: Well, bud, that’s not exactly what I said. See, with evolution there’s this thing called genetic mutation and it takes years and years and years to happen …

FOUR-YEAR-OLD: [Confidently] The sun is old.

DAD: Yes, the sun is old. So, kind of like as many years old as the sun. It takes thousands and thousands and millions of years. Imagine if a monkey had a baby and that baby had a baby and that baby had a baby…after that happens for years and years, monkeys could become people.

Now, some people say that just the Bible is right and others say that just science is right about evolution.

SIX-YEAR-OLD: I think it’s probably the Bible. Right, Dad?

DAD: Well, what if they’re both right? The Bible says God took six days to make the Earth. But who knows how long a day in God’s mind is? I don’t. And I can’t act like I have a clue about that. Maybe a day for God is like a day for us. Or maybe a day for God is like a million years for us. I have no idea. But I think it’s possible that God set in motion the science that made monkeys become people over a very long period of time.

SIX-YEAR-OLD: [Semi-satisfied grunt of approval.]

FOUR-YEAR-OLD: Hmm … [10 seconds pass by] … Yeah, but why doesn’t Curious George have a tail?

DAD: I think we’ve had enough hard truths for one day. I’ll explain how PBS and the publishing industry lie to you another time.

About the author

Matt Norman, an at-home dad of three, is a former organizer of our Austin Dads Group chapter. A version of “Debating Evolution, Creation” first appeared on his blog, And So It Has Come To This, and then here in 2018.

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This blog post is part of the #NoDadAlone campaign. Fathering Together/City Dads Group, the National At-Home Dad Network, and Fathers Eve are joining forces to amplify messages that help dads recognize we are not alone! Follow #NoDadAlone on Instagram, and learn more at NoDadAlone.com.

Photo by Lewis Roberts on Unsplash

I have a theory. It’s so revolutionary, so mind-altering, I’m terrified to unleash it on the world. I’m sure a savvy behavioral scientist will steal my idea and claim it as his own. Perhaps some pseudo-scientist will develop an outlandish experiment to test my hypothesis while giving me zero credit. Despite these obvious dangers, I’ve decided to bravely share my idea with the world.

I believe children appear to have endless energy because they actively and greedily consume the life force and willpower of their parents and caregivers.

That’s it. That’s the theory. It’s the only way to explain my children’s ability to grind my resolve into dust.

I’m sure most parents can relate, but with all humility, I’m not your average parent. My hobby — running ultramarathons — is based on willpower and longsuffering. I voluntarily push myself to the physical limit just to see how far I can go. My endurance and resolve to will myself to finish these races is my superpower, and yet . . . my 4-year-old can bring me to my knees.

Compare your life before v. after kids

If we are on even footing, human to human, I believe I can out willpower anyone on Earth. Those rare times I encounter someone with similar resolve, it’s a bad day for us both. However, my children come equipped with a genetic advantage. They can somehow extract my life force, my very essence, and use it against me. It’s the only way a 9-year-old could use logic and wit to defeat me. How else could you explain a 7-year-old with more probing questions than a special counselor investigating a former president?

Yeah, sure, it’s possible I’m not as special as I think I am. However, I reject that reality. Instead, I’ve invented an outlandish, borderline supernatural explanation for why children erode parents’ defenses. As crazy as it seems, it does make sense. Let’s look at the evidence. (And remember, you’re reading this theory on the internet — I’m not obligated to offer any — let alone, REAL — evidence yet I’m offering it.)

Firstly, I bet you had more energy before you had children. Morning wake-ups were easier. Drink a glass of wine while following a complex recipe? Easy-peasy. Staying up beyond 10 p.m.? Non-issue. Reading a book was a relaxing, calming experience; you could easily finish a chapter without losing consciousness. But then, kids …

Secondly, I bet you used to do stuff. Any stuff. All the stuff. Hobbies. Social lives. Yard work. You know — stuff! Your only consideration was whether you felt like doing stuff. There was no one else to interfere. No one else draining your will and resolve. It was just you. But then, kids …

Thirdly, remember sex? I do. It’s how we got ourselves into this mess.

Fourthly . . . well, I’m still stuck on the sex part.

Oh, the endless questions, negotiations

Now, I have a confession. All of the above is admittedly nonsense. It’s a cover. An elaborate explanation to give me the courage to say: I’m tired, and I feel like I’m losing.

I probably shouldn’t view parenting as a winning or losing proposition, but it all feels so contentious. Each interaction with my kids is a complex negotiation. My oldest, for example, has begun questioning every request or decision my wife or I make, and she needs detailed explanations to be satisfied.

Eat your dinner. Father, how much food do I have to eat?

Pick up your toys. Mother, how many toys would be acceptable?

Brush your teeth. All of them, dear parents? And just how many minutes of this would constitute sufficiently brushed?

It’s exhausting.

Meanwhile, my middle son is a cliché “boy,” and everything has become physical. He runs around the house like a raging Viking, plundering my other kids of their safety and me of my will. By the time my youngest makes her move on me, I’m like a limping antelope asking the cheetah, “Just make it quick.”

Worst of all, these little soul suckers are only 9, 7, and 4.5 years old. What will I have left in the tank when requests start to involve dating, driving and the really scary shit?!

I look at other parents who have survived and wonder: How?

Is this what good parenting feels like?

I’m terrified of the future and I question my ability to navigate what lies ahead. Already I struggle to keep up. School and sports. Birthday parties and play dates. So many dance practices, cheer practices, and cheer AND dance competitions. Do I spend enough time with them individually? Does one of them feel like they don’t get enough attention? Is there enough time for each child to pursue his or her own interests?

I’ve told other moms and dads that if they are stressed about their parenting decisions, it means they’re doing something right. I wonder if I can take my own advice? Is it truly evidence I’m doing my best? Who the hell determines why my “best” is, anyway? Why do I keep asking so many questions? Is THIS where my kids get it from? Crap.

There is some pseudo-science part of my brain that may believe children have a secret, cosmic superpower that allows them to drain us of our life force. Maybe that’s the alternate reality explanation I need to get myself through the parenting quagmire of endless questions and chronic bickering. Perhaps, in some alternate universe, I’m winning awards for parenting aplomb, but in this world, the words of the English band Bastille say it best: “What can I say? I’m survivin’, crawling out these sheets to see another day.”

So go — observe your kids from a distance. If they make eye contact, and their eyes shine and glow as they drain you of will and life, remember life-force energy vampires are real, and those damn kids always know what we do in the shadows.

Photo of life-force drained father: © globalmoments / Adobe Stock.

How can you help develop the inner workings of your child’s brain? According to a new book, you must “think outside” our culture’s normal associations with the brain.

In The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, science writer Annie Murphy Paul declares the common metaphor of the brain-as-computer is flawed and limiting. “Our culture insists that the brain is the sole locus of thinking, a cordoned-off space where cognition happens, much as the workings of my laptop are sealed inside its aluminum case,” she writes. “This book argues otherwise.”

The book focuses on the problems such a “brainbound” perspective creates in modern schools and workplaces. But many of Murphy Paul’s well-researched insights have relevance for today’s parents, especially given our ever-increasing technological saturation. Indeed, technological devices often “isolate” both adults and growing children “from one another, sealing us within our individual digital bubbles,” she writes.

Benefits of eye contact, gestures, conversation

The key for parents is to think beyond the screen as much as possible when interacting with their children. Some of these strategies for “extending the brain” are instinctive, but Murphy Paul’s research often pinpoints the reasons that can help parents be more intentional.

For example, we know that from birth a baby starts tracking a parent’s eyes, and parents naturally return the gaze. But Murphy Paul explains the importance of eye contact is actually built into our eyes. “Such gaze-following is made easier by the fact that people have visible whites of the eyes,” she writes. “Humans are the only primates so outfitted, an exceptional status that has led scientists to propose the ‘cooperative eye hypothesis’ — the theory that our eyes evolved to support cooperative social interactions. ‘Our eyes see, but they are also meant to be seen,’ notes science writer Ker Than.”

Beyond eye contact, gestures are another bodily way to “extend” a young child’s brain development. Murphy Paul explains “linguists theorize that gesture was humankind’s earliest language …  all of us, then, are effectively bilingual.” She notes that “well before babies can talk, they are waving, beckoning, holding up their arms in a wordless signal: pick me up.” Parents help “translate” the child’s gestures. Growing children, therefore, benefit from an environment rich in both words and gestures like pointing. Gestures can be especially helpful when a parent and child read a picture book together, which is essentially preparing the child’s brain to “read” the outside world as well.

As young children age, their brains and social skills benefit tremendously from as much face-to-face conversation as possible. The reason? “The body is the bridge,” Murphy Paul writes.

During conversations, “the body acts as a critical conduit, supplying the brain with the visceral information it lacks. … When interacting with other people, we subtly and unconsciously mimic their facial expressions, gestures, posture, and vocal pitch,” she writes. “Then … we perceive what the other person is feeling because we feel it in ourselves.” Think of how the lack of body language often impacts the quality of e-mail or of what Murphy Paul calls the “stutter-stop rhythm of asynchronous text exchanges.”

Role of exercise, motion, nature in brain development

Parents can also bodily “extend” a child’s brain development via frequent exercise and exposure to nature. Movement while learning new information can actually improve recall (hence we “never forget how to ride a bike”). Other ways to capitalize on this connection might be to encourage children to use their fingers when learning to count, act out stories they read, and write their thoughts in a journal. As Murphy Paul states, “whenever possible, we should offload information, externalize it, move it out of our heads and into the world.”

The value of exposure to nature in our increasingly digital (and urban) world cannot be overstated. In terms of brain development, Murphy Paul explains “children’s play is more imaginative when they are outdoors than when they are inside, research has shown; natural play spaces are less structured and more varied, and the props children may come across (leaves, pebbles, pinecones) have no purpose predetermined by teachers or parents.” Even if nature is hard to access, benefits can still result from home environments with natural light and growing plants. 

On a larger scale, Murphy Paul notes the paradox of nature’s effect in our high-tech age. “The time we spend scrutinizing our small screens leads us to think small, even as it enlarges and aggrandizes our sense of self,” she writes. “Nature’s vastness — the unfathomable scale of the ocean, of the mountains, of the night sky — has the opposite effect. It makes us feel tiny, even as it opens wide our sense of the possible.”

In her conclusion, Murphy Paul returns to the pitfalls of the brain-as-computer metaphor. “We should resist the urge to shunt our thinking along the linear path appropriate to a computer — input, output, done — and instead allow it to take a more winding route,” she writes. Such a route would embed brain-extensions into our family life as much as possible.

Parents do some of this instinctively, but Murphy Paul’s book is a reminder that while today’s technology has many benefits, it also tends to limit brain development linked to our bodies, environments and relationships. In other words, we don’t want our growing children to just “use their heads,” but to “extend their minds” as well.

Child brain development photo: © denisismagilov / Adobe Stock.

“Thank you for coming in for our discussion of Dark Energy and Dark Matter,” says the obviously way smarter person at the front of the room.

The lecture begins and immediately my ass falls asleep on the metal chair. The rest of me is close behind. But the rest of the crowd is into it.

I should be, too. I love to science. Hell, yeah, let’s science the science while we science! That’s the example I set for my kids, who are here with me. The two older ones, who we will call Potential Supervillain 1 (age 13) and Potential Supervillain 2 (11). When they grow up and kill us all, I want them to remember it was dad who took them to the observatory to see the shiny lights in the sky.

“You can see in this chart …” says the science type person at the front of the room. A picture is on the screen giving the room an eerie glow like nuclear waste has just been spilled. I have no idea what the picture is. Is it even a picture? There are a lot of arrows on it, but they point in different directions and other things are going on.  

“And in this next chart, you can clearly see …” To me, it looks the same.  

The questions begin during this chart, and the rest of us armchair scientists do our best to trip up the volunteer lecturer. She answers them easily, and almost with an admonishment of the stupidity of the people asking them.

I thought my question was good: “Who are the leaders in this field currently?” Ha. That’s a good one. It’s a go-to. Four people around me answer immediately, and I don’t recognize a single name. But the point remains: good, solid question. See kids, dad can hang. I don’t want to brag but I took physics in college, a fact that I have reminded them a hundred times.  

I look over at my kids and they are both shaking their heads. It’s as if everyone knows who the quarterback of the Andromeda Galaxy is but me. But it’s not until they speak that I am sure they that I’m going to have at least one supervillain on my hands.  

“The shape of the universe is …” my Potential Supervillain son asks. I can’t even complete the sentence because the rest of it is in a language I don’t speak. And the answer is not “like a basketball” but instead a short debate. I look at my son and wonder why he isn’t watching porn. See, I know what happens. It’s the YouTubes. This is what they watch on the computer instead of other videos from Germany. They wouldn’t even understand that joke.  

My Potential Supervillain daughter nods along like she understands all this. And there it is, my doom. I was much different at their age. I was riding a bike and taking punches in the face from my brother. Occasionally, when we were bored, I would spit on things. And although my kids do their share of stupid, they are also vastly more aware of everything “out there” than I was.

You know when you say “you have the entirety of human knowledge at your fingertips” when the kids tell you they are bored? Well, sometimes they actually listen to that and apparently this is one of the things that they found. However, I was talking about cat videos.  

I do take them to a lot of activities and things. I want the experience, the adventure, to show them the world is out there for them. But now I’m starting to think I’m just preparing them for finding a way to blow it up. They’ll probably spare their mother. And when I told them I was taking them to the observatory to look up into space and see things, they got on their computers and did some prep work. I’m equally impressed and terrified.  

“With exotic particles …” my son asks. When the lecturer is giving her response, I lean over to my son and ask him if those are the ones that hang out at those clubs near the airport. He whisper-shushes me. That was a solid joke and not even a giggle from him. This is probably why they will spare mom and I’m screwed.  

The lecture continues and I do my best to understand. My brain hurts as it tries to absorb what it’s being told. Seventy-four percent of the universe is made up of Dark Energy (still don’t know what that is), 22% Dark Matter (?) and the rest is observable matter. Please excuse my numbers there. I’m pretty sure I blacked out at some point during that. But it is an interesting lecture.  

The lecture ends because apparently the scientist is a high school senior and has a school thing the next day.  

My kids are picking up this stuff way easier than I am, I know it. I used to think I was all about this stuff. I was the science guy. I’ve built a trebuchet just to teach them some mechanics. But now, it absorbs a lot slower. But not the kids. They have no mental blocks to any of this and can look at it with unfiltered eyes. Their minds are open to any possibility. Wormholes are not so much science fiction to them but something that will truly be discovered and utilized in their lifetime.  

I can only assume at this point that they will use them to hurl me into space. But just so the rest of you know, those are my kids. I did that. And let’s be honest, if they are destined to destroy the world, then I must have done a pretty good job of encouraging them. So really, I’m a super-smart dad.  

Also, the rest of you are probably screwed, too. My bad.  

A version of this first appeared on Hossman At-Home. Photo: © Danomyte / Adobe Stock.

Last month my family slept under a Tesla Coil, and we lived to tell the tale!

Although I haven’t run my family through a Geiger counter recently, I’m pretty sure that there will be no radiation burns.

We spent the night at the annual Camp-In of one of the best museums in the country,  Chicago’s own  Museum of Science and Industry.  This was our first time doing so, and I don’t think it will be our last.

But first, a little backstory.  This is one of our favorite museums and had been even before we moved to Chicago.  Once a year, we’d make a pilgrimage from New York to Chicago to the MSI, to see the humongous train set of Chicago, the giant doll house, walk inside the coal mine, and take the tour of the giant submarine.

BEST MUSEUM IN THE COUNTRY

Even at some of the admittedly great museums we’ve been to, including the Queens Science Center, the Philadelphia Children’s Museum, the Franklin Institute, etc., MSI Chicago is the standard by which all others are judged.  We figured out that being a member is a great deal!  (If you plan on visiting the museum more than twice in a year, and you drive there, you will do better to be a member than not.  I did the math.)

But we’d never taken advantage of this special member opportunity. Once a year, the Museum stages a camp-in where 600 lucky people get the opportunity to spend the evening at the exhibits. Members get to select sleeping spots next to many of their favorite exhibits, there are smores and music and giant sized games, and more importantly, the museum is open until 11 pm, so you get to go to all of the exhibits you want, relatively uncrowded, and at your leisure.

This is apparently a thing for Chicago museums.  I did a little research and it turns out that same night, the Planetarium was having an event as well, and the Aquarium, the Zoo, the Field Museum, and the Chicago Cultural Center all have similar programs.) Furthermore, it turns out that the Museum has a similar event coming up called the Snoozeum.    I don’t think you have to be a member for this one, and it seems like it is much more crowded.  Next one is December 15.   Find out more here.)

After we made plans for the camp-in, my son’s class planned a field trip to the museum for the day before.  We were already planning on surprising him, so we kept it up.  He would never suspect.  During the field trip, as I brought him and his 4 classmates around, we couldn’t see everything he wanted to see.  “Next time we go, ” I kept telling him.  He didn’t realize the next time would be literally the next day.  Later that night, reviewing the field trip after dinner, I jokingly told him that the museum was so big that we could sleep there and still not see everything!  He laughed, not knowing that less than 24 hours later he’d be doing just that!

SLEEPING UNDER THE TESLA COIL

We checked in around 6 pm, brought our stuff over to a potential sleeping area, and started exploring the museum.  In addition to my son, we brought his older cousin, who also had a fantastic time.  Dinner was in the cafeteria, which serves surprisingly good food, and where one of our favorite exhibits is (The Rube Goldbergesque Swiss JollyBall Machine. )

This is not my video, but a pretty good look at the jollyball apparatus.  We watch this every time we go to the museum!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6SLd0eQK9g]

Many of the exhibits you still needed to have timed tickets for, although they were all included in the price of admission.  In the one night that we were there, we saw The Mirror Maze, the U-505 submarine, the chicks, the bike exhibit, the extreme ice exhibit, the circus exhibit, the body exhibit, the kid’s imagination center, and ended our evening with a late night tour of the Coal Mine.   And of course Jollyball.  Even after seeing that, we didn’t see everything-  we didn’t go over to the space center, see the trains, the smart house, the fairy house, or see the brick by brick lego exhibit. (we had seen that the day before)  The Robot exhibit had not yet opened, sadly.  It’s open now, and it looks fabulous!

What was great about all of these is that because the museum was so uncrowded we could still see all of those things and take our time about it.  We normally only see about half of that in a museum exhibit.

Some things to know if you go next year.

1. You have to be a member to attend.
2. They don’t shut off lots of light for safety reasons.  Many people brought tents so that they wouldn’t be sleeping in the light.  We had picked one place, but the boys thought it was too light, so we moved to a place that was equally light.  Next time, don’t trust the boys!
3. Many people (clearly veterans) brought blow-up beds.  We slept on the ground in sleeping bags, which was not nearly as comfortable as we would have hoped.  Next time, a blow-up bed.
4. We brought everything in to the museum using a wagon.  The museum is almost entirely handicapped accessible, so that wasn’t too much of a problem.  I definitely recommend it, as the museum is large, and your stuff is probably heavy.

Overall, it was a great experience, and we would do it again!

And we are also planning to sleep around (at the other museums!)

Find out more about the Museum on their website http://www.msichicago.org

(Read more about this and Adam’s other adventures at www.dadapalooza.com.)

Earth Day was April 22nd, and as an environmentalist and son of a scientist, our family fully embraced the day of marches in support of science.

Our first step in celebrating Mother Earth was to pick up an all-electric vanpool car, a Tesla X, from Green Commuter. I found out about this amazing company when they launched last year and came to Los Angeles. They rent out the Tesla X, the all-electric SUV version of the popular Tesla car, to riders by the hour, day, or weekend. This is great for two reasons: 1) our family of four (about to be five) only has one car and sometimes (especially on weekends) having a second car is helpful, and 2) I could never afford a Tesla X (let alone most all-electric vehicle) and, 3) having the opportunity to drive it for a whole weekend was such a treat and, especially on Earth Day, made it extra sweet!

I don’t know about you, but my kids love anything that moves – cars, trains, trucks, buses, planes. So on the way to pick up the car, I thought it would be fun to take as many modes of transit as possible (and be as “green” as we could). So we rode a train, took a bus, and walked. For native Angelenos, those modes of transit seem pretty foreign, but for our family, we use them almost every day. And we love this “new Los Angeles” – one with all kinds of transportation options. We even stopped for ice cream along the way at Salt & Straw, a funky new ice cream shop which just opened in the Arts District – a fun new part of town to explore.

Once we got the car, we took full advantage! We invited our neighbors to join us in the vanpool down to the March for Science. We even had one of the speakers join us – Andres Cuervo, the executive director of FuturizeX (the tech hub at UCLA) to talk about public funds for science research.

We loved the creativeness of all the signs at the march itself and my son enjoyed the experience of walking amongst all those people, despite the heat. When we got overwhelmed, we took a detour and visited the magical Los Angeles Central Library with a whole section of children’s literature.

For me, the March was an opportunity to expose my son to the importance of peaceful protest in a democratic society and the need for scientific inquiry and public, non-politicized support for science research. While he may be a little too young to soak it all in and remember the experience, I am sure he understood that what we did together was special and meaningful to me. At the end of the day, that is sometimes the most important thing as a parent — exposing your kids to new experiences and showing them that you are passionate about something and that, someday, they will hopefully become passionate about something of their own.

There are a lot of parenting books out there and I have read very close to absolutely none of them. I just kind of hate the idea of most of them. I know they’re meant to be helpful, but the What to Expect-style benchmarking leads to stress and the oh-so-sage advice that sounds good in theory but JUST ISN’T FRIGGIN WORKING!!!! leads to more stress.

And doubts.

And, let’s face it, most of it is bull anyway.

Parenting is tough. We all just want to know we’re not screwing it up too badly, that other people are going through the same issues and that we will be able to look back at whatever at-the-time all-consuming problem we were having and laugh about it. Soon. Please, God, make it soon!

The Science of Parenthood: Thoroughly Unscientific Explanations for Utterly Baffling Parenting Situations pokes fun at parenting books and the problems that all parents face.

The book is filled with cartoons, charts and graphs and lots of sciency mumbo jumbo. You’ll feel smart, as you vaguely remember a lesson about fruit flies from eighth grade biology, being used to blame your partner for your child’s propensity to be a “smart-ass back-talker.” And the handy-dandy Beverage-to-TV Index is spot on. If your kid is into Caillou (or Sofia the First or Bubble Guppies), the next round is on me.

One of the cartoons I really love deals with the double-edged sword of fostering independence in your children. We want them to do things on their own, but…..they……are……so……………………slow. UGH JUST LET ME DO IT I’LL DO IT I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE I’LL DO IT!!!! Sorry. Daddy was just kidding. Take your time. You’re doing great, honey.

Reading the Science of Parenthood will remind you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Those problems you’re having? Yeah, we’re all having them. And you don’t have to wait until they’re over to laugh.

The Science of Parenthood is a great gift for any parent or expecting parent who wants to revel in the ridiculousness of raising children.

A version of this first appeared on Amatuer Idiot/Professional Dad.

It is amazing how much a child can be entertained by a balloon, a piece of string, a straw and some masking tape.

That experiment and 29 others are explained and demonstrated in Dad’s Book of Awesome Science Experiments, the latest book by blogger, author and stay-at-home dad Mike Adamick. These are among the best books for dads looking to do more things at home with their kids.

As I was leafing through the book, my little guy told me he wanted to do an experiment with a rocket. And not having Mentos or Diet Coke on hand, we decided to try the Straw Balloon Rocket Blasters.

You tie a thin cord to one point, run it through a straw, and hold on to the other end. Then blow up a balloon, don’t tie it off, tape it to the straw, do a countdown, let it go, and wait for squeals of delight. What was neat was a few of our runs were not successful and we had to make adjustments (making the line tauter, less or more air in the balloon), which is the scientific method.

So when it worked it was even sweeter.

Asthmatics may want to avoid this one since your kids will want you to blow up the balloon over and over again. Thankfully, bedtime stopped me from breaking out my inhaler.

This tome is a winning follow-up to Adamick’s first book, the how-to crafting and backyard building extravaganza called Dad’s Awesome Book of Projects. Each experiment it contains a brief introduction, an explanation of why it works, a list of supplies, step-by-step instructions and then a quick fact on how you can take it further. Most of the supplies are things found around the house or things that can be easily found in a grocery store.

All the experiments in Dad’s Book of Awesome Science Experiments are fun and relatively easy to do with kids of various ages. Obviously, dads with young kids will be doing most of the work, but even tiny tykes will have some hands-on participation in each experiment. Some of the experiments are instant gratification types, like the rocket blasters, but others take much longer and you will need to check back on them after a few hours or days.

The experiments in Dad’s Book of Awesome Science Experiments are sorted by discipline: chemistry, biology, physics, planet Earth and the human body. Not only is this a great book to keep around for a rainy day, but it’s a nice reference to make an easy project for a science fair. I think we are going to try to make Ivory soap clouds next, but more likely we are going to do further testing with the Rocket Blasters.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of “Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects” to review it. My review is not based on the free-ness of the book.)

My son is 4.5 now, and he goes to preschool. After school and during vacations, weekends, and even during the regular week we are always looking for cool adventures and projects to embark on.  We’ve gone to museums, eaten donuts, baked muffins, gone shopping, played baseball, walked on stilts, gone to movies, been superheroes, and lots of other things. Some of them are educational, some of them are fun, and the best ones are both.  And I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ideas.

So when I heard that Mike Adamick, dad blogger par excellence, had written a book about cool projects to work on with your kids, I jumped at the chance to review it.  

In case you don’t know Adamick, he writes for the San Francisco Chronicle parenting blog, Jezebel.com, and a host of other places.  His blog, Cry It Out, was touted by Disney’s Babble.com in 2011 as “The best daddy blog in cyberspace.”

Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects is really great– it features over 30 do-it-yourself, build- it-with-your-kids projects of all stripes, sizes, and levels of difficulty. From making goo slime in your kitchen to popsicle stick bridges in the kids’ room to a rope swing or a fruit crate scooter for outdoors – this book really does have a variety of projects to try.

The projects are divided into how long it will take to do something. Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects has three basic categories — afternoon crafts, weekend Projects, and school break projects.

Some of them seem a little bit beyond my technical abilities or interest or my kid’s (at 4.5, we are not going to build a bike jump ramp anytime soon). And while he has a backyard swingset on the list, since we have four parks within walking distance, and live in a pretty urban environment, I think we will probably pass. But there’s still plenty for us to do. One of the great things about the book is that the projects are well-designed and well-explained. Each project has a materials list, a step-by-step, some intermittent check-in photos to reference when you are afraid you did something wrong, and even some extra tips.

With most of these projects, the fun is in doing it with your kids, and Adamick has embodied this in his text.  As long as you are doing it with your kid(s), there’s not too much you can actually screw up.  (And if your birdhouse is not quite level, so be it!)

My son and I can’t wait to try some of these projects!