Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Philadelphia, PA

So, where were you for the freakish crazy hail storm on Sunday? In the twenty some years I've lived in the Philadelphia area I've never seen anything like that. We were literally JUST off the trail at the Wissahickon (where my daughter walked three miles in two hours! yeeha!) and in the car headed down City Line Avenue when the skies broke open and all hell broke loose.

We had a full minivan too -- four adults, two kids, and three dogs -- and we all FREAKED out when the hail started. We quickly got off the road, thankfully, and managed to calm down enough to comfort my daughter who could not understand why God was throwing ice at our car.

My husband, in his husbandy way, began a lengthy lecture about clouds and air circulation and how hail forms and my daughter immediately glazed over. Hell, I glazed over. But when I got out of the car (once it was safe) and gave her a couple of balls of hail to touch, she was much better able to begin embracing some of the scientific concepts that went into creating that hail.

So we learned another great parenting lesson during that storm; that no matter what happens, you can take any natural occurance and turn it into a science lesson for the kiddos. This week I'll be talking about some of the best spots to teach your kids about science in Philadelphia, and we'll use our crazy March weather as a launching pad.

So what did you tell your kids about that storm?