Hand washing

Hand washing does not rate as an important pastime amongst my offspring. At least it didn't until I did some experiments to show them the importance of hand washing.

I couldn't get Ben, in particular, to understand that germs are on your hands, even though you can't see them and that whipping them past a cold running tap doesn't constitute washing them.

To illustrate my point I had them rub a teaspoon of oil onto their hands. I told them that this is to replicate the skin oils. Then I sprinkled cinnamon onto their little hands and told them that the cinnamon represented the germs.

I had them pass their hands through cold water and then check the cinnamon. Ben's eyes grew even larger than normal. The cold water did not budge the cinnamon. We progressed through rubbing with cold water, running them through hot water, rubbing with hot water and then rubbing with soap and hot water. The winner being, rubbing with soap and hot water.

They are now convinced about the merits of hand washing. They were shocked at how difficult it was to remove the cinnamon. I thought afterwards that we should have used glitter as that is even more difficult to remove than cinnamon.

I was on a roll, so I then moved onto coughing and sneezing. I had them hold their hands at varying distances from their mouths and then to cough. I wanted them to feel the air on their hands. Then we spoke about how when we cough or sneeze, the germs come out with our breathe.

We then did a fun activity to replicate germ laden sneezes. We put confetti into balloons, blew up the balloons and then popped them. I then had the kids measure how far the confetti scattered. It's worked a charm. The kids are now vigilant about hands over mouths. (I read somewhere that you should cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow. I see the logic of it, but have no intention of doing so. Can you imagine everyone coughing and sneezing into their crooks of their elbows? Way too bizarre for me)>