We have had test tubes and various other scientific equipment for years. I have even made Helena a mad scientist dress up/lab coat aka a clothes protector… It is usually me who gets out the stuff as a provocation to play with it. My Dad talks science as often as he can. My sister gave us a worksheet she used when she was a science educator. Helena has known of this worksheet’s existence but would look at it and reject the whole idea of being organized like that! (You can’t make me, you can’t make your thing my thing???) Her thing is a full on potion making mess… no order! Especially when we looked after her friend. It was just chaos. I’d make some goop and it would work as I’d slowly add ingredients and sort of follow a recipe – well general principles. They would create a mess…. and then ask for my goop. Though they always had more fun than me.

The chemistry equipment has hung around for a while not getting used. Then today we actually followed the sheet in a mostly logical way. Helena still needed my help, for some language and to focus her, sometimes the volume of possible answers was too big to know where to start.

It was worth the wait to make it come from her rather than imposed from above by me. She does do less recognizable science in a systematic way all the time. We also talk about “sample size of 1”. I model confusing causality with unrelated events.

I’ll wait to do this again, until she asks for the mystery powder (the next sheet) and hopefully she will be able to do it all herself. .. she can tell me when she’s ready.