Summer Brain Games

My kids and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago this week.  This is one of our favorite museums because it's FILLED with hands-on exhibits.  My kids never say, "I'm bored.  Can we leave yet?" when we're there.  Usually, it's more like, "Just five more minutes, Mom?  This is fun!"  You could spend an entire day at the Museum of Science and Industry and not cover everything (although the museum isn't so huge that you'd walk away feeling like you'd hardly made a dent).


If you don't live in Chicagoland, you can still enjoy the museum at home.  The MSI, Chicago is offering the Summer Brain Games, a FREE online activity kit featuring weekly, at-home experiments on summery science themes!  It's free to participate and the experiments use items that are easily and inexpensively purchased, or found around the house.  Kids (and adults) of all ages will love the Summer Brain Games!  I mean, who wouldn't love to build a catapault to use in an extra-fun water balloon fight?  And I can't think of a better way to learn about temperature changes than by making ice cream, can you?


And what a great way to fight the summer brain drain that inevitably affects all kids over the summer?  You know what I'm talking about - your kids' brains turn to pudding as they forget everything they learned in school throughout the year.  And let's not forget about the "I'm bored"s that set in during the summer.  The Summer Brain Games are a great way to combat that with fun and engaging information about science that's around us all summer -and year- long.  Why do cans of regular pop sink in the cooler while diet pop floats?  What's happening when a beam of light bounces off certain objects and not others?


The program just kicked off Monday, June 18 so you can sign up now!  Just go to msichicago.org/summerbrain to register!  Families who register to be "Summer Brainiacs" will receive a voucher good for a FREE general admission ticket to MSI.  Participants will get weekly emails with tips on each experiment and additional ways to play with science this summer.  And each week, one lucky winner will receive a family membership to MSI for a year of hands-on science fun!  Participants will also be invited to share their Summer Brain Games experiences with photos and essays about what they learned for a chance to win a tech package - a notebook computer, iPad and digital camera! How cool is that?!