Here are some quick experiments for your child to try:

How is a rainbow made? To see, fill a glass with water. Place it on a sunny windowsill. Put a large sheet of white paper on the floor beneath. The water acts like raindrops. It splits the white wavelengths of sunlight into its true colors. They appear on the paper.

What causes static cling? Lay out tiny pieces of paper. Ask your child to rub a blown-up balloon on his hair. Slowly lower the balloon to an inch above the paper. The balloon is negatively charged with electrons. They attract the opposite charges (protons) in the paper to pull them upward.

Why do we see a face on the moon? Cover your floor with newspaper. Let your child use a stiff paintbrush or toothbrush to splatter black watercolor paint onto white paper. Let the paper dry. Cut small circles from it. Tape these “mini-moons” on a door. Step back and describe the images you both see. As with the moon, our brains put together unrelated features to make a known pattern. The dark gray patches we see as eyes on the moon, for example, are great plains.

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