Water Works

While my son was happily occupied playing at the kitchen sink, I decided it was a great time to get some housework done. He was so self-contained and happy! No mother guilt for me! Running around upstairs, folding laundry and putting stuff away, I heard, “Um, Mom. Mom? MOMMMM!!!!!” I started running and, as I bounded down the stairs, heard a strange, loud, slapping sound. Rounding the corner of the staircase into the entryway, the sound made physical contact with my face. It was water, and it was spraying 30 feet into the entryway from the kitchen faucet.

“What the…what the…what the!” I suddenly developed an immobility problem along with my new stutter. Frozen. No clue what to do as my son stood innocently by the sink, a hole where the faucet used to be, and water projecting towards me with the strength of a toy at a water park. Finally, springing into action and almost slipping across the puddle (or should I say pond) in front of me, I reached the sink and turned it off.

Quiet. You could have heard a pin drop as we stared at the destruction around us, the water dripping from the walls, the appliances, my antique chairs. Suddenly I saw the shop vac and my son had the same idea, chanting, “Suck it up, suck it up!” I thought that was the point of a shop vac so I tried. But the water levels weren’t subsiding so I ran, again avoiding the puddles, and found stacks of towels. Slowly, methodically, I began sopping up the entryway, which could have housed a few of those big Koi fish. Ten towels later I had everything semi-dry. Well, except for the walls which, as my son pointed out, were still dripping.

We sat in silence and finally my son said, “I’m sorry Mom.” Surprisingly, I couldn’t get mad. In a blink, I realized it was one of those boy moments. And in a proud mother moment I envisioned him as a future mathematician and inventor like Archimedes, who, as the legend goes, stepped into a bath and realized that the water that ran over equaled in volume the submerged part of his body. How many of us wonder why our kids can play for hours in the bath with containers, measuring, pouring, and overflowing? They’re not having a bath after all! They’re learning about displacement and buoyancy through the Archimedes’ principle.

But, crashing back to reality, I stared at my still, semi-damp entryway, the dripping walls, my drenched son and, with a glance at my broken faucet, wondered how I was ever going to make that cup of coffee I desperately needed at this exact moment. My son turned to me and said, “Can we go to Discovery Village?” Now there’s a win-win. Hot coffee AND they have a water feature. Now he’s not only a future mathematician and inventor, he’s also a master problem solver! It’s all how you choose to see things I thought to myself, as we jumped over a missed puddle on our way out the door. But, note to self, from now on they play with water OUTSIDE!

This Friday, Discovery Village’s Kid’s Club is Water Works. Your kids will enjoy some water play and experiments, with no mess for YOU to clean up! To learn more, click here.

To learn more about the numerous benefits of sensory play, click here.
For an Archimedes Principle science project for toddlers, click here.