Making Homeschool Science Experiments Fun For You & Your Child

Homeschool science experiments are good in theory but actually doing them can be a messy time-consuming affair and sometimes a failure.

Little hands love the idea but if you are fiddling about trying to make it work, or find the right equipment, your children can quickly lose interest and you find yourself completing the experiment on your own.

Setting Up Homeschool Science Experiments

To do homeschool science experiments you don’t have to set up a lab with test tubes. Many everyday activities are science lessons.

Don’t ignore the everyday experiments such as:

• Kitchen chemistry
• Gardening
• Nature study and field trips
• Play based physics with Lego and magnets

But not everything can be taught through everyday activities. So making time for science experiments needs to be considered.

Block out some time. Many homeschool resources do include experiments but they are often placed randomly throughout the text. For us we needed to allocate specific times for homeschool science experiments rather than fit them in with our everyday routine. That does mean planning ahead.

Do what you can and don’t feel guilty when you can’t. Some experiments are so obvious that you can skip them. Others may illustrate a point but would a YouTube video do the trick. See Hoopla Kids Lab

Homeschool Science Experiments Co Op. We did a pluck dissection with our co-op group this year. It was a big hit with over 50 people turning up.

Collecting, Observing and Reporting

Charlotte Mason wanted children to be given the skills of the scholars.

Science was a favourite topic and although her science lab was the great outdoors she wanted children to record and report their observations. The science notebook was crucial part of their education.

Starting a science notebook is a rewarding record of learning.

Dissections

If you are looking for equipment for your homeschool science experiments, the local butcher is a good place to get pig’s eyes, livers, kidneys and sheep heart and lungs for a pluck dissection.

Southern Biological is also a place to get some specimens for dissections. They come frozen.

Dissections can be messy and for some of us just plain yukky. But we came up with some solutions:

• Have a co op day with friends. You’re bound to find one parent or friend who loves chopping up and showing kids all those fascinating parts of a specimen.
• We used complex puzzles that put body parts together. I’d rather fiddle with a plastic heart or intestines than the real thing (and I worked in operating theatres before I had children).
• Kirsten Moon also has some great tips on dissection alternatives using models and videos.

10 Homeschool Mums Share Their Homeschool Science Experiments

Here are some real life mums doing some experiments with their kids.

• Kitchen Science Chemistry
• Science Gardening
• Solids Liquids and Gas
• Water Filtration
• Magnetic Slime and the Periodic Table
• Amazing Egg Experiment
• Liquid Density with Honey
• Colourful Celery
• Making Soap

Science Books and Kits

The Science Kit by Chris Maynard is a science book and a kit as well. It includes big flip chart type pages plus lots of the equipment you will need.

Science and Nature Living Books