While eating breakfast, the morning sun rays made me think of getting out our “window” blocks and some white paper. I showed the boys the cool colors and patterns that appeared on the paper when the sun shone through the blocks, but they were only briefly interested. Isaac used them to make a garage for his Mater.
Then, I thought of an experiment I used to LOVE to do (much to my parents’ dismay) as a kid. I’m not sure why I would choose to enlighten my 5-year-old to this, except that it is so very cool to me. I got out the magnifying glass. After “burning” our hands, I focused a sun beam on a leaf and scorched a few holes through it. After a complete absence of response from Ian, I prompted, “I just burned through a leaf without even touching it! Isn’t that the most amazing thing ever?!” Ian replied, “No. The most amazing thing ever would be if you put the magnifying glass on that table and a giant tornado of light and fire came out of it.” Well, darn it, he’s right again.