Diaper dissection

When Hunter came home with the winter book order from school it was not a shock to Deke or I that the thing he really wanted was a Snow Science Kit. It contained three different experiments and a book called Snow Science. So off went the order and two weeks later it arrived home and he was eager to get started. The book was really great it gave a lot of neat information about the formation of snow and crystals, the water cycle and temperature. We read about snowflakes and the formation of crystals and then did the growing crystals experiment. Hunter placed the snowflake in water and added a powdered solution. He was amazed to watch the snowflake instantly start absorbing the liquid. The book also had logs in the back for him to make observations and record the progress of the experiment. He loved this!! We observed and tracked the progress of the snowflake for the first 24 hours when the first crystals had formed on the snowflakes edges. I loved to watch him checking it out and then seeing what he would decided to write in his little log. We are so excited that he loves Science. I love that when we are doing experiments he hurries to his closet to get his "lab coat" from his birthday. It is a very special lab coat. Also in the kit came an experiment to "make your own snow." As we were reading the directions Hunter was reading the package and noticed that it said the package contained diaper dust. We started discussing absorption and diapers and for a second there I forgot that I was talking to a seven year old. He is such a deep thinker and often asks me things that I don't know the answer on until I do a little research. At the end of this discussion I suggested that we run another experiment simultaneous with making the snow. We would take one of Emma's diapers and "dissect" it and pull its innards out. We would put the packaged diaper dust from the kit in one bowl and the actual diaper filling in another add water to both and check out the similarities and differences between them. Hunter was stoked about this idea. So I went and got one of E's diapers and cut a slit along the side. Hunter pulled out a whole bunch of the stuffing and we put them each in a bowl. He was intrigued to find that when he rubbed the stuffing for awhile little particles came off of it that looked like the diaper dust. He told me that he thought the "diaper people" probably added cotton to the diaper dust to make it hold together better. We first added water to the packaged dust and sure enough it absorbed into a moldable substance that could be shaped into a ball or another shape. When we added water to the diaper contents it still absorbed but it wouldn't break up it stayed bonded in clumps and definitely would not form into anything. As Hunter played and experimented with the two of them he told me he wondered if different brands of diapers would absorb in different ways. We had so much fun doing this together. He is so smart it just amazes Deke and I. There are so many times during the day where we will be having a conversation and I can't believe how bright and mature he is. He truly has a thirst for knowledge, he could be doing projects and experiments and reading all the time. He is always bringing me in a book to show me something he just learned or asking me how something works or using his toys to create something that has a function. From the time he was a baby he has been exploring his environment trying to understand how things work. Figuring out how to make an object function even quicker or more efficiently. I love his brain. I love the way his little mind works. Keep on inventing and exploring the world buddy, keep on improving it :)