COSTA MESA : An Experiment in Family Interaction

What could possibly tear third-grader Kari Ann Sherard away from the television on Wednesday night?

All it took this week was a ball of homemade Silly Putty concocted from glue, liquid bleach and food coloring.

Kari skipped “Beverly Hills 90210” to attend Family Science Night at Kaiser Elementary School with her mother, sister and about 35 other families.

“It is fun and . . . we can do (science) experiments together,” said Kari, while she and her sister, Michelle, a fifth-grader, each stirred the putty mixture. “Usually we are all in our rooms watching TV.”

Getting families excited about learning is what Kaiser’s science nights are all about.

“I think that (many parents) don’t have the time to get involved with their child’s school as they would like to,” said Laurel Ritter, science night instructor. “So if you give them an opportunity after dinner, they will take advantage of it.”

Ritter was laid off last year by the Newport-Mesa school district as a classroom aide and now, as a volunteer, runs the family science nights. She has designed it as a hands-on experience, with families moving from station to station making the putty, musical instruments and learning about holograms.

In addition, each family was given an obscure tool and asked to figure out how it works and what it may be used for. Included in the collection was a Mexican hot-chocolate mixer, an Eskimo thimble made of seal skin, and a Japanese inkwell.

“What we are offering competes with what goes on at home,” said Principal Christine Jurenka. “It is really, really healthy to have parent-child interaction and the chance to see kids as learners.”

The four science nights at Kaiser have become wildly popular since the program premiered last year.

“It didn’t occur to us that we would have more people than we could handle,” Jurenka said, adding that the program has attracted parents who rarely came to school.

The program is so popular that there was a waiting list for the several dozen families who could not be accommodated during this week’s session. Unfortunately, they will have to wait until next year because Ritter is only able to do the program about four times each school year.