Taste

What we refer to as taste is actually what scientists call the "taste experience," a combination of both taste and smell. Our 10,000 taste buds (each of which consists of 50 to 100 sensory cells) detect only a few basic categories of tastes, such as salty, sweet, and sour. It's actually our sense of smell that allows us to distinguish thousands of different flavors within those categories.

Let your kids see for themselves what happens to their "taste" when their sense of smell (or touch, for that matter) isn't engaged.

Using Your Bean. Blindfold the children, then give them each one sweet and one sour jelly bean -- say, a sour apple and a strawberry. Ask the kids to pinch their noses and to -- one at a time -- pop the jelly beans into their mouths and identify which is sweet and which is sour. Each child who identifies the different beans correctly gets 1 point.

Next, give each child two sweet but different flavor jelly beans -- like a strawberry and a cherry -- and ask them to try to identify the jelly bean flavor with their noses pinched. If they can't (and they shouldn't be able to), ask them to try again, using two new jelly beans, without pinching their noses. Each child who identifies each individual flavor gets 1 point. The child with the most points wins.

The Prize: Jelly beans or other favorite taste treat.