How we do it: Science Time

Tink has Learning Time after Independent Play almost every day (usually not on weekends or if we have errands to run at that time).  It ends up happening around 10/10:15 and lasts until she gets tired of it.  I will go over Learning Time in a different post.  After Learning Time we have what I call a "Learning Activity".  This is basically just some sort of fun activity for her to do.  It can be painting, coloring, crafts of some sort, and often it's Science Time.  Tink loves Science Time!  It's really simple and easy to do.  All I do is get a bunch of containers from around the house (tupperwear, old yogurt containers, anything really) and put them out on her play table on the patio in the backyard (it can be messy!).  Then I add a varitey of substances to the containers and give her utensiles to mix with.  Some of the substances that we use are baby rice powder, powdered sugar, oatmeal, sand, water, water with food coloring, something we call "goop" which is Xanthan Gum blended with water, etc.  (Side note:  I discovered the "goop" while I was trying to find a way to thicken Lulu's bottles and some moms suggested Xanthan gum.  It did not work for Lulu's bottles but was very fun to play with so I gave the "goop" to Tink to play with and we've been using it ever since)
This is a pic of the Science Time set up that I put out for her to play with.  These are the containers of fun stuff.  There is one with water, one with bubbles, one with powdered sugar, and one with flour.  I limit the amount of mixing ingredients to 4 because I find that it's a good amount to experiment with but not overwhelming. 

Here is the whole set up:

I give her a variety of tools to mix with and just leave her to explore.  She focuses really well and basically zones out the world.  She mixes, pours, scoops, etc to her hearts content.  Then, when she's done, she just tells me and we move on to something else.  I do make sure to clean up Science Time because the mixtures can get pretty gross and attract insects.  I just pour everything down the drain or pour into the trash and put everything into the dishwasher.  Super easy!