Daily Dose 47: Experiments

Loud crying. . . make that screaming. . . was coming from outside. It sounded serious, but inexplicable. Quiet hours were just about finished and no one had appeared as yet from their bedrooms.

No. That was definitely one of my children crying outside. Hurrying (as close as I get to panic in anything having to do with my children) outside and around the corner of the house, I met one of the boys holding his head. One glance showed a goose egg, dark purple and immense, right in the center of the forehead. Two glances showed an open second story window. I was looking at a failed experiment.

Apparently, he just wanted to see if he could get out of the window using bed sheets tied together. Even more disconcerting), it had already worked ONCE! Yes, he had been outside and come back in with me being none the wiser.

Following good experimental procedure, he was trying to replicate Trial One. Fortunately, Trial Two ended in the goose egg, thus cutting short any bright ideas for any similar excursions in the future.

Experimental result: the Lord might hold bed sheets tied together long enough for an emergency escape, but neither He nor the parents (and certainly not the boy) were sanctioning them as an alternative for leaving the second floor. Stairs and doors would continue to serve their purpose.

And we would continue to use experiments, parent planned ones, thank you, as (normally) a highly effective time tool.

The Scientific Process

Real experiments, the ones with lab-coated and clipboard-carrying scientists working behind Authorized Personnel Only doors follow a basic scientific procedure:

A good experiment starts with an idea

1. shaped into a testable form (hypotheses),
2. which in turn leads to planned and controlled projects (the trials),
3. during which deadlines are set,
4. testing is done,
5. data is collected and recorded,
6. OBJECTIVE evaluations are made,
7. decisions are made about how to proceed next,
8. everything is recorded,
9. and (if it’s very successful) the report is published.

Routinely, an experiment is not a stand alone project, but is part of a nest of experiments, each using the same rigorous procedure and each building on the last to work toward a knowledge bank of information and conclusions.

Home Experiments

In the Home Center, we should embrace this experimental mindset. We can be well-served by treating new ventures, new tasks, new processes as experiments we “perform” for specified amounts of time. During these experiment, we do the task consistently. We take notes and talk about any progress and make adjustments. At the end, we draw conclusions: should we try something different, can we do this for another (daily, weekly, monthly) cycle?

Why is experimenting a good mental approach for home life?

• Experiments are planned events, not reactions to negative situations. Now a negative situation may have prompted the experiment, but after using EO time to plan how and when to experiment, whatever prompted it will be a past event.
• The spirit is collaborative. The team is working together to see how effective the new idea is.  Assistants can enter their input.
• The deadline provides for a face-saving finish, if needed. Is the book really boring? The recipe a failure? The new chore not broken down enough to be successful? Once you reach the experimental deadline, the “failure” can intentionally disappear. As an authority in the home, such deadlines help children understand you are not being capricious when you stop something you said not too long ago to do.
• Documentation and Data happen. You write down the ideas, design plans and helps, record stop watch times, list the comments, and give a final report. This gives you a body of work to share in the future, other than a memory.

Add Head of Research to the executive outlook. This job becomes more professional all the time!