• Science experiments are so much fun. I think I enjoy them almost as much as my kids do. I know what you’re thinking, “What a nerd.” Which makes me a pretty good mind reader. And if you aren’t thinking it, you are now. Making me a pro at mind control. I know, awesome. But back to the science experiments. We tend to do a few experiments a month around here, time willing. Most recently we attempted walking water. This is a great one to do during the summer because it can easily be done outside, and once the experiment is over the kids can run and play in the water.

    For this easy experiment you need a couple of plastic cups, water, food coloring, and paper towels.

    Take one of your plastic cups and fill it with water. Add a few drops of food coloring. While the food coloring is completely optional, it really does help the kids see the process. Place the filled cup on a raised surface. We used our porch steps for this, but you can easily create your own steps outside with bricks, boxes, whatever you have on hand.

    …you can easily create your own steps outside with bricks, boxes, whatever you have on hand

    Next take an empty cup and place it below the first one. Grab your paper towels and rip it so you have a small strip. It has to be long enough to reach from the bottom of the full cup to at least the middle of the empty cup.

    Now you watch. And wait.

    It takes some time, but after a while all of the water will have moved from the top cup all the way to the bottom cup. After our initial experiment with just one step, we raised the ante and made the water walk down several steps.

    It took about an hour to travel to all four cups for us. A fun little add on would be to add different drops of food coloring in the empty cups. They will eventually mix with the original color. You can have your kids guess what color the final cup of water will be!