Ideas for Teaching Science
If I’m honest, I feel like I’ve been fairly slack so far at teaching my kids Science. That’s despite having worked for several years pre-kids doing scientific research as a lab technician! I always assumed Science would be the easy part of homeschooling given my background, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. I think perhaps it’s just that it takes more energy and organisation to teach. Plus my main focus in the primary years is really on Maths, Reading and Writing – I know everything else will follow if those are taken care of.
In saying that, Science is well worth studying – after all, this world is fascinating to learn about! And it can be a great opportunity to enjoy doing some fun topics and activities all together.
I have managed to incorporate Science into our curriculum over the years in some of the following ways:
1. Library Books
From the start, library books (as well as our own books) have been a great way to interest the kids in all sorts of science topics. Over the years my kids have learnt a lot from just reading books about volcanoes, earthquakes, electricity, light, habitats etc.
2. Documentaries
It’s amazing how easy it is to access resources for learning. When we studied habitats, the kids LOVED watching David Attenborough’s series on animals and plants (BBC Earth, DVD). We’ve also watched the odd YouTube video. Whenever one of us has a question about something, I try to look it up then and there.
3. Factivity Books
These workbooks (available from Kmart) are fairly lightweight, but still have some good info and are a really fun and colourful introduction to some different Science topics. We currently do them together once a week, and they are always looked forward to. So far we’ve covered off Geography and half of the Human Body one. I even got the younger version of the Human Body one for my 5 year old to do alongside us.
4. Apologia Young Explorer Series of Books
These are textbook style but quite readable and not too dry. American in origin, they are written from a Christian worldview and include activity suggestions. We’ve done some of the Exploring Creation with Botany one and are now working our way through the Astronomy book one day per week.
5. Activity Worksheets
As part of some topic studies we have used worksheets or activities from Twinkl, plus others from eg. the Zoo website, the Botanic Gardens website and Google!
6. Outings
A few years back we all had zoo passes and learnt a lot from our visits there. The Auckland Museum is fantastic for learning about volcanoes and animals, Kelly Tarltons is great for sea life and the Botanic Gardens for plants. There’s Motat of course for technology related info, and the Science Roadshow also. A couple of years back we had a fantastic trip to Arataki Visitor Centre with a guided bush walk by the ranger, Simon. He was great! We learnt a lot about our native plants and their past uses by Maori, plus some excellent techniques for enjoying the forest!
7. AHE Science Fair
We have only participated in one Science Fair, and the kids found it pretty hard going and a bit intimidating to be honest. But I think it is something we will try again at some point. Even if your kids don’t participate, they can learn a lot from looking at all the other projects!
8. Science Experiment Kits
Kmart sells some fun kits, as do Farmers and The Warehouse. We’ve tried a few and the kids always enjoy them. Also I intend to buy some experiments from Sarah the Scientist which one of my friends told me about. Jaycar sells some electronic kits, as do Sharper Thinker. Brainbox kits are a great introduction to circuits. I would love to try out the KiwiCo crates at some point too.
9. Homeschool Classes
I’ve seen a few different science classes on offer over the years which would be another great way to cover certain aspects of Science. Especially where costly equipment that you don’t have at home is involved! So far we haven’t made use of any classes, but as our kids get older we will definitely consider signing them up.
10. Supercharged Science
Aurora Lipper (a US rocket scientist) sends out simple experiments in a regular email, and she also has a whole science curriculum. So far we’ve only done a few of these, mainly due to lack of materials, but they should be fairly easy to source (when I get around to it!)
11. Other Science Experiments
There are lots of books available with ideas for science experiments – we seem to have inherited a few from other homeschoolers. Also check out YouTube – just type in “Science Experiments for Kids”. It can sometimes be a little tricky to explain the principle behind them, but they’re fun to do anyway!
In conclusion..
So you can see that my approach hasn’t been particularly orderly, but in writing this list I’m actually quite surprised at how much is on it! Although I do feel like I’ve done barely any experiments so far. Nevertheless, we have still covered quite a lot of ground with this more ‘pick and mix’ type version. I’m not sure that my kids would have learnt any more if I’d taken a different route! Hopefully some of these ideas are useful for you too.
If you want some ideas for what topics to cover, it may be helpful to check out the Cambridge Primary Science Curriculum for some input as to what science knowledge it would be useful for your kids to have.
In terms of fitting Science into the weekly schedule, I have found my approach for this year to be quite successful. I assign a particular book to a set day of the week, so we do Astronomy on Wednesdays and Factivity on Thursdays. This seems to be working well, since the kids know the routine and keep me accountable, and it’s more achievable than trying to do it every single day.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in homeschooling, it’s don’t try to do everything at once! Enjoy experimenting 🙂
