Building on this Activity
Once your child is comfortable with what the terms force, mass and acceleration mean and what happens to the acceleration when you either increase or decrease the mass or force then the next stage is to begin to work towards actually calculating this relationship with the child. As always remember to take this really slow and give the child plenty of time to become comfortable with this new concept. Allow them to use a calculator if they need too and don’t worry too much at this stage about them doing it on paper. To move Rowan onto this next stage we started by simply hung signs around the wheelbarrow racetrack with pictures of his favorite characters on them introducing the equation e.g. we had five characters holding signs with the words ‘force’ ‘equals’ ‘mass’ ‘times’ ‘acceleration.’ As we ran around the track we pointed out the signs and talked to each other and him about what they meant. At a certain point we then hid a calculator and secret message from one of his favorite characters in the wheelbarrow for him to find telling him they needed his help to work out the force needed to accelerate a certain amount of mass. We repeated this on numerous occasions until we were confident that he was able to complete the activity with minimal help from us. Remember the right pressure is key here. We gave Rowan as much help as he needed until he was confident in what we were asking him to do and ready to take over.
Adapting this activity to your own child’s interests
This activity can be adapted in numerous different ways based on your child’s interests and favorite activities. For example it could be done in a swimming pool or with the child riding on a horse or your shoulders. The cartoon network characters Rowan loves can be replaced with your child’s favorite things whatever they happen to be.