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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: science safety

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ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posts: 3299

Posted: Jan 04 2008 at 12:21pm \| IP Logged

Ok, currently we are solving our safety dilemma by requiring ds (10) to clear his experiments with dad - some dad rejects, some dad says he may do but only with dad and very few are cleared to do on his own at the moment. I'm too naive to recognize what is really dangerous and what is not. I tend to be very laid back and am inspired by this child's creativity. However, my lack of science knowledge has meant he has managed to do some interesting experiments in our back yard that are inspiring in terms of what he has learned about chemicals and chemical reactions - not so wonderful in terms of potential safety issues (thankfully his guardian angel was watching even if I missed the moments). I found out about a lot thanks to the papers I made him write - and the discussions that these led to around the table that revealed even more and a few overheard conversations between the boys.

Now, the problem with this is that it means that we miss some moments of real inspiration because I'm not sure about saying yes or no and resort to having him wait to clear it with dad. I hate to dampen his enthusiasm at all - but I also know he gives me minimal details hoping I'll say yes, knowing that I won't know that something is explosive or .... He does have enough sense to know that he shouldn't supersaturate water with salt and do electrolysis (something I would not have known or even thought to question when he did the electrolysis of hydrogen). He could tell me what would happen and why it was dangerous - still he is just a 10 year old boy and ...

Ok, some of you knowledgeable science folks. How do you let your children run with ideas and still stay on top of things and make sure it is safe. Do you have any ground rules? Remember, I have 4 boys in a row that are fascinated with explosions and all things military. They also dig out things well beyond anything I would have dreamed possible and make up their own experiments using their own ideas and old chemistry textbooks (high school and college, organic and general chemistry) and a dictionary as reference -also a 1987 series called "Inventions Growing Up With Science". These seem to be chock full of fascinating things that my boys are learning. Unfortunately, I am totally unfamiliar with all but my own high school chemistry book (and that one seemed very tame to me - all I remember from it is the balancing of chemical equations - and it never occured to me to try and find ways to use the periodic table to figure out how I might manage to come up with individual elements so I could do these things in real life

. I was content to simply follow the directions and put together my neat little lab report and walk away with a neat little grade. My boys, however, are very different and the most innocent looking book seems to be a source of ideas that aren't always safe - and though the 10 year old seems to have a pretty good handle on things in terms of safety - he is also a 10 year old boy and loves blowing things up

.

I know that lots of folks hyperventilate over lots of things - climbing trees, exploring, etc. that I just am laid back about. I don't want to stifle the boys - neither do I want to be negligent in my duty to supervise and oversea their safety. I'd love to hear ideas - suggestions, alternatives, a list of sample safety rules, heads up on any things I should be particularly careful with in terms of chemistry. (In the meantime, I've learned more about chemistry in the last month or so than I ever did in all my schooling.)

Janet

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