Making Science Fun For You & Your Child

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 Science Experiments

To do an experiment 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 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

Group together with friends. 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.

10 Homeschool Mums Share Their 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

Looking For Equipment in Australia

The local butcher is also a good place to get pig’s eyes, livers, kidneys and sheep heart and lungs for a pluck dissection.

Southern Biological is a place get some specimens for dissections.

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.

Look here for a Science Primary School Book List

And here for a Science High School Book List