One afternoon last summer, while out rowing on Cape Cod with my 6-year-old daughter, Rachel, I asked her what she thought clouds were made of. She looked up at the sky, thought about it for a moment and replied, "Cotton?" It was one of those delicious moments in parenting--not knowing if Rachel was pulling my leg or treating me to the perfect simplicity of her child's-eye vision of the world.

Most kids, at least older ones, know that clouds aren't made of cotton, but they probably don't know much more about them. They are, however, captivated by the power and beauty of thunderstorms, rainbows, hailstones, and cumulus clouds. The activities that follow--from setting up a home weather station to conducting basic weather experiments--will help introduce your kids to the wild, unpredictable world of meteorology.

Maggie Megaw is a regular contributor to FAMILYFUN.