I distinctly remember sitting in sixth-grade science class and almost falling asleep while we were reading from our textbook about the animal kingdom and phyla. I hated science for a good reason. We learned it only through textbooks.
Since becoming a homeschooling mother, I’ve committed myself to making homeschool science both engaging and exciting for my homeschoolers. After all, science is interesting! Are you ready to take your homeschool science to another level and make it come alive? Here are my keys to bringing homeschool science to life with every lesson.
Homeschool Science: Experiment First
Children are naturally curious, which is why the question “why” is often one of their first responses. Science opens the door to curiosity and critical thinking, and it should be active. If you really want to bring your homeschool science to life, you need to encourage curiosity and encourage your students to ask those questions. Your homeschoolers must participate in what they are learning. That’s why we always start with an experiment.
Experimentation allows us to make observations, predictions and draw important conclusions about our physical world. The goal of homeschool science is to figure out how things are made, how they work and why. And to do this, we need to start each homeschool science lesson with visual and physical discovery to help draw those conclusions. It’s not hard to find an experiment to incorporate into your homeschool science lessons. Here’s a great list of 40 cool science experiments to get you started!
Real World Application
It’s easy for our students to get excited about growing a garden when they learn to identify and produce the veggies they enjoy. But how do you get your homeschoolers excited about studying the phyla in the animal kingdom? Make it about the real world. Ask yourself how the homeschool science lesson intersects with your lives.
Begin your lessons with that real world application. We’re all more interested in learning something when we know how it applies to our lives. While this is easy to do in some areas of science, it’s more challenging in others.
Connect homeschool science to real life by keeping in mind how the topic touches your life experiences, possible careers, or issues that interest your family. For example, if you’re studying how atoms bond, why not start by pouring your students a big glass of water while you explain how two atoms of hydrogen combine with one atom of oxygen to create water.
Be Curious and Explore
Perhaps the most important way to make homeschool science fun and engaging is to raise scientists who are naturally curious about the world around them. Science is all around us and within us. Get outside and explore the world that God created. Talk about the scientific principles and realities at your fingertips.
When children realize what science truly is, they naturally want to learn more. Do Saturday morning science experiments. Collect natural artifacts while hiking. Visit science museums. Encourage questions. Have your children research their interests. It’s not enough to tell your homeschoolers that science exists in the real world around us. Show them.
I believe homeschool science should be the most fun and exciting part of your day. Through experimentation, real world application and natural curiosity, it will be.
Stay tuned for our upcoming blog post on the Top 10 Homeschool Science Resources you should have in your lab kit!