It’s that time of year when all of us homeschooling moms start panicking and thinking we need to get more resources and curriculum! But do you really need to purchase a Homeschool Science Curriculum? Especially for younger children? NO! You can keep it super simple using what you already have on hand! Books.
How does this work for younger kids?
Science can be one of the most fun subjects for kids (and sometimes the most intimidating for parents). There are thousands of homeschool science curriculums, resources, lessons plans, and kits out there…so how do you choose? You don’t! I believe that allowing kids to explore science and learn about things that interest them at these young ages creates a love for learning. And learning is the goal! Teach your children HOW to learn science by reading from good books, talking about what you learn, writing down (notebooking) what you learn, and then telling others about it.
We use simple books about science topics. I spend about 10 minutes reading about something in a book and then we discuss. What was interesting? What did we learn that we didn’t know? We decide what we want to “record” in his notebook and write it down. This is a great time to practice copywork for younger children. (but don’t make this time about handwriting…keep it all about science and work on handwriting separately if they are struggling). Then we illustrate our page. If your child doesn’t want to draw, that’s okay! Print off a picture and glue it onto the page. Or you can draw and they can color!
After a few days of doing this, we love to go back over our pages and look at what was done. He LOVES telling me all about the previous pages and what they say. This is amazing reinforcement! He is remembering more than what he wrote and explaining more and more to me each time. Sometimes he might want to add to his information from before as he remembers something else important.
What about homeschool science for older kids?
Well, this works for them too! The most important part of teaching and learning science is to learn how to research, observe, and record data. All the way through high school, a child can pick a topic, research it, observe it, record observations, experiment with it, and explain it to others. It’s the same process just deeper and more complex as they get older. While my 1st grader might read with me about an insect, write down important facts that we’ve learned, and then illustrate it (or better yet, find an example and look at it under a microscope or something!)….my high school child would follow the same process but in a more complex way. Using the insect example, she would probably research an insect (or a class or species of insect) from multiple sources, take notes, collect data, etc. She might come up with a hypothesis about something she’s learned and work on creating an experiment, conducting a lab, and writing a lab report.
I will say that my high schoolers have used text books for science, and it’s totally find if you do too. However, at the young ages, I suggest you don’t. Let them explore and play, and learn to research and record data. And if they don’t want to use a text book later, you don’t have to!
Take a look at this video that explains it all:
So here is just a reminder to myself and to you that you can keep it simple! Here’s my “nothing fancy” and totally NOT edited video of how I do homeschool science with my K-1st grader! This works for all ages really!!
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