Five Fun Ideas for Homeschool Science

 

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. I received complimentary copies of the puzzles and workbooks. I was not required to share a positive review. Thank you.

For every homeschooling family, there are one or two subjects that fill them with dread. How will we teach that in our homeschool? They might say, "I'm not good at math," or "I don't like to read." Or maybe they are concerned about art because they feel like they don't have the necessary talent or materials. And what about science? How can you possibly do science experiments in your homeschool? Today, I want to share five fun ideas for your homeschool science lessons. 

Crafts 

Sometimes, homeschool science lessons come with built-in crafts and activities, and other times we are inspired by books we read. We have created multiple volcano crafts and experiments over the years, including a painting that was part of a Natural Disasters Unit Study, and created a craft that showed the process of metamorphosis in a butterfly.

It's also fun to build dioramas for the animals and habitats you are studying, craft a model solar system, or build DNA out of candy. These are some fun hands-on craft ideas that are easy to incorporate into your homeschool science lesson. And many ideas can be completed with the items you have around your house. (I am all for not having to buy anything extra to complete a craft or experiment!) 

Puzzles 

We have reviewed several really cool puzzles over the years in our homeschool that are science-themed. It is wonderful to incorporate a fun past-time into our homeschool day. Why are puzzles important to include in your homeschool science lessons? 

Puzzles provide your children (and you) with the opportunity to develop memory skills. You need to remember what the picture will look like when you are done and remember where you have previously put pieces. As you pick and choose pieces, you test your ideas and solve problems. Does this piece fit here? Do the colors and patterns match? Often when I am working with our children, I will look for shapes first and then look at colors and patterns. 

We have used a number of anatomy-themed puzzles in our homeschool, including:

• For older children try: Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzle: The Human Thorax
• For younger children try one of the following: 
• Dr. Livingston JR Human Body Floor Puzzle
• Dr. Livingston JR. Human Brain Floor Puzzle
• Dr. Livingston JR. Human Heart Floor Puzzle

And a really fun puzzle that depicted the periodic table of elements. I would definitely recommend the Periodic Table of the Elements Puzzle to homeschooling families whether or not your children are studying chemistry. Read my review here: Finding The Fun in Homeschooling: Adding a Puzzle into your Chemistry Course. 

Hands-On Activities and Kits 

Our daughter really thrives on hands-on activities – especially in science. She loves to get outside, collect leaves, measure water, weigh objects, etc. Whether we are using her curriculum from My Father's World to examine roses (see if I have a photo) or using unit studies from SchoolhouseTeachers.com, she learns better with these hands-on homeschool science lessons. 

If you don't know where to start, you can purchase science kits to help you get started. From growing your own crystals to dissecting an owl pellet, there are so many great options. And they make perfect gifts for homeschooling families. 

Courses, Workbooks, and Other Lesson Resources 

Where do you turn for homeschool science lessons, workbooks, and resources? I hope you have my blog bookmarked, as I have shared numerous resources over the years. And today I would like to share more ideas with you. 

Our son enjoyed studying  Astronomy with Exploring Creation with Astronomy textbook and junior notebooking journal from Apologia so much so that we are using  The Book of Astronomy Set from Memoria Press this year for his science. We will be memorizing the 15 brightest stars and looking at constellations in more depth. I can't wait to go star gazing with him! 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Courses 

Another favorite place to look for science courses is SchoolhouseTeachers.com. 

• Charlotte Mason Preschool – This six-month preschool course doesn't need a desk! Complete age-appropriate nature studies with your preschool to learn more about the world around you. 
• Creation, Nature, and You – For kindergarten through third grade. Explore how nature can point you and your children to God as the creator. There are 11 videos that can be used alongside your regular science homeschool curriculum to reinforce topics you are already studying. 
• General Biology by Core Academy – A great look at biology for your high schooler from a Christian worldview. 

And if you are looking to supplement your homeschool science lessons with worksheets, Super Teacher Worksheets is a great option. You can search for specific topics to find pre-made worksheets or create your own crossword puzzles or other worksheets to accompany your science lessons. Read more about Super Teacher Worksheets in my review here: Printables for Your Homeschool Classroom. 

Workbooks 

Some homeschooling families shy away from workbooks and worksheets. I've seen some very passionate arguments about why one should never use a workbook or worksheet in one's homeschool. But...every child is different. Some thrive on hands-on activities and lessons while others enjoy the process of reading and writing on a piece of paper. While our daughter loves hands-on experiments, our son would often rather just complete an assignment in a workbook. He is not a big fan of getting his hands dirty. So you must make the decision that works best for your family. 

One science workbook that I reviewed combined the best of both worlds. We reviewed the second and fourth grade editions of  Science: Lessons and Investigations published by Evan-Moor courtesy of Timberdoodle recently. The workbooks contain reading and writing activities as well as hands-on crafts and projects. Our daughter has been highly enjoying it. In fact, we just made a volcano craft to go along with a poem as part of her disasters unit last night. 

Fields Trips! 

There are so many great science-themed museums families can visit. And if you don't live near them, you can visit their website to see virtual exhibits or follow them on social media as many often share videos of experiments, talks, and more. 

Here are a few museums to get you started on your field trip experiences:

• The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia) – While you are there make sure you travel through the giant heart. 
• Museum of Science (Boston) – They have livestreams so you can enjoy science at home or at the museum. 
• Smithsonian (Washington DC) – There are several different museums ranging from natural history to astronomy. Be sure to plan your day to spend lots of time touring! 
• Science Museum (London) – Stop by to see a variety of traveling exhibits as well as visit the IMAX theater for a unique movie-going experience. 

Crafts: Bear Painting

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Painting is a favorite pastime for our children. So, I like to find new and creative ways to allow them to paint. From using different materials as brushes like painting with leaves to using handprints, there are many fun ways to paint. We've also experimented with watercolors and using q-tips to paint, too! 

For this painting project, I wanted our children to focus on the background and not the animal they would include in the painting. So, we used a clipart drawing of a bear when the entire painting was completed and dry. 

Materials 

• Paint and Kwik Stix Paint
• Different types of paintbrushes
• Construction paper of varying colors 
• Foam shapes 
• Glue 
• Scissors 

Steps 

1. Gather your materials. 

2. Decide what color construction paper you and your children wish to use. Do you want to create a nighttime picture, a picture of a polar bear, or one in the forest? 

3. After choosing a piece of construction paper, pick what colors you want to use. Then start to paint your picture. 

4. After the picture dries, put on foam shapes and glue on your bear. 

5. Your picture is ready to hang! 

More Painting 

If you are getting ready to prepare for winter studies in your homeschool, I've shared a very cute book and a painting craft previously.  In Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change, your children will see numerous woodland animals. Pick one of the animals in the story and create a painting highlighting the change in the season.

Another fun way to incorporate painting into your homeschool lessons is to paint on a different medium. When we were reading Black Bird, Yellow Sun, we created a picture of the sun and a black bird using beans. After the beans were dry (we glued them on the paper), we painted the beans.

Looking for More Painting Lessons and Courses? 

Why not take a look at SchoolhouseTeachers.com? They offer over 400 courses, including many art courses. With so many schools limiting their electives, including art, homeschool families have the chance to explore art in a great number of ways. They can learn new techniques, study famous artists through history, and explore different mediums such as sculpture, painting, watercolor, and more. As I look through their course offerings, there are currently 19 art-related courses, including: 

• A Century of Art
• Achieving Art Success with ArtAchieve 
• All About Art
• Art & History: Interconnected 
• Art: The Timeless Treasure 
• Art Tips with Jan Bower
• Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business
• Discovering Art History
• Drawing in Pen and Ink
• Drawing with Realism
• Elementary Art 
• Everyday Easels
• Exploring the World of Art
• Inkscape Online Adventure
• Learning About Art
• Let's Do Art Outside
• Preschool: Arts, Crafts, & Music
• Studio Art for Teens 

Learn to Code in Your Homeschool

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this product from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you. 

Do you have a child who wants to learn about coding, but you don't know where to start? We were blessed with the opportunity to review the Let's Start Coding Base Kit, courtesy of Timberdoodle. This Base Kit allows children to immediately start coding with hands-on lessons. 

A year ago, our younger son had the opportunity to learn some coding, but our subscription to the course ran out. I wasn't sure where to go next because he was still interested in coding, but I wanted something easier to include in our homeschool day. When the opportunity to review the Let's Start Coding Base Kit appeared, I jumped at the chance. 

What is the Let's Start Coding Base Kit? 

The Base Kit is part of the 2022 Fifth-Grade Timberdoodle Curriculum Kit. It contains a number of components, including: 

• One Maker Board (Maker Board 2) 
• One speaker
• Five LED Lights (3 separate colors and 2 RGB lights) 
• One push button 
• One turn knob
• One USB cable 
• One "fan wristband" (our son's name for the band that holds the cards together)
• References cards for each component and common coding concepts

It is recommended for grades 4 and up and is perfect for ages 8-12. After visiting the website, your child will begin by learning how to transfer code to the Maker Board. After this first online lesson – there are both text and a video to teach the lesson, our son continued to complete more projects.

How Did We Use the Kit in Our Homeschool? 

Can I let you in on a secret? When I opened the Let's Start Coding Base Kit, I didn't know where to start. Teaching coding is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I was so happy when I saw the first card provided me with a website at which to start for the free software. Once we connected the Maker Board, our nine-year-old started working his way through the projects. I helped for the first few – attaching the Maker Board and the LED lights – but very soon this became one homeschool lesson our son could complete on his own. 

I wrote coding in our son's agenda several days a week, and he would simply go to the website and start the next lesson and project. This really has been a hands-off hands-on homeschool "course" for our son. He would complete the project and then share what he learned when modifying the coding. On one occasion, he needed his father's help with the speaker, but he has done the rest on his own.

Our Thoughts 

As these are electrical components, some of the pieces are fragile. They do warn of that on the speak components card: "Heads up! The speaker legs aren't bendable." So as long as you explain that to your child, there shouldn't be any problems. 

Everything fits neatly in the sturdy box! I love homeschool resources that provide good storage. The software is compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10, and Mac OSX 10.9 and above, plus Chromebooks. So there is a lot of flexibility, no matter what type of computer you use in your homeschool. 

I love that the 50 kid-friendly projects provide immediate feedback as the lights blink or the speaker plays a tone. Because our son is working with C++ Coding, he gets to change things and modify the coding. These projects can be repeatable because of this feature. 

Our son shared his thoughts: 

"It's been fun! So far, I've learned setting it up, LED lights, making old-school video game sounds, and sending messages from the Maker Board (that's where we send code) from the computer. You can do the lessons or read the cards and jump in."

I would recommend the Let's Start Coding Base Kit for families with older elementary-aged children. It's great for learning coding in your homeschool or as a summer project for children who attend public or private schools. 

Crafts: Bear Figure

 

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Our daughter loves arts and crafts. This has always been one of her favorite parts of the homeschool day. So I love thinking of different crafts for us to create together using common household items and other materials we have on hand. 

While spending time learning about black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, and more, I designed several different crafts including a collage, a paper bag puppet, and this bear figure. We also included some lessons from SchoolhouseTeachers.com as well as some favorite childhood books to read. 

Materials 

• Construction paper
• Paper towel or toilet paper roll 
• Scissors
• Tape
• Glue (glue stick or white glue) 
• Pencil or crayons 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials. 

2. Cut out the pieces for your bear figure. You will need a large brown circle for the head, two small brown circles for the ears, one small orange, oval-like shape for the muzzle, one brown shape for the back legs, and two brown shapes for the arms. 

3. After the pieces are cut out, draw a face on the large circle. 

4. Draw a nose on the orange piece. 

5. Glue the orange muzzle on the large circle. 

6. Attach the large circle to the toilet paper roll. 

7. Attach the ears to the circle. 

8. Attach the back legs. 

9. Attach the front legs. 

10. After the glue dries, the bear figures are ready to play with! 

Looking for a Great Resource? 

As the fall season progresses, I love including seasonal content in our homeschool lessons. One of my favorite places to go to look for seasonal lessons is SchoolhouseTeachers.com. After clicking on their holiday and seasonal content, I go look through lessons, games, and more that fit into several different categories, including: 

• Christmas 
• Summer
• Easter
• Fall 
• Holiday/Seasonal (New Year's Day, President's Day, Mother's Day, Fourth of July, and many more!)  

For this season, I am looking at the Nature and Outdoors Homeschool Science Course for our daughter. There are units on owls and acorns that will we focus upon first. There are instructions for a nature journal and, since she likes her Bible Notebook which is part of the My Father's World Curriculum, I think this might be a hit with her, as well.

Book Club: Book Review of Prayer Starters

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Books are a wonderful resource. They provide information, data, encouragement, wisdom, and more. In Prayer Starters: Talking with God About Hard Times by Suzanne Eller, readers find a useful resource for developing their relationship with God and working through their own battles. 

Prayer Starters is a 168-page paperback book divided into three parts containing prayer prompts, Bible quotes, short readings, coloring pages, and references for you to explore. The author, Suzanne Eller, speaks briefly of her own hard and challenging season and reminds us that all we need to do is show up because God is waiting for us. He will carry us in our difficult times. And we don't need anything special when using this book. "Prayer Starters is a creative, interactive invitation to help you pray right where you are" (12). 

What is Prayer Starters? 

After an introduction with recommendations about how to use the prayer book, readers are greeted by Part One and a quote from Elizabeth Elliot. Each part focuses on a different area: 

Part One - Trusting God in Hard Times

Part Two - Growing in Hard Places

Part Three - Freedom in Hard Places

In Part One, prayer prompts are inspired by verses from Jeremiah, Isaiah, the Psalms, Hebrews, and more. God provides hope, a place of comfort, a stronghold, and guidance. Eller reminds the reader in Part Two that Jesus knows us and our hardships. We are a part of God's plan. We ask through one prayer starter to fall on our knees and seek God's help. 

When we read through the prayer prompts in Freedom in Hard Places, we trust God, seek Him, and ask for help in realizing that God takes care of us at every moment and offers us ways to talk to Him.

What Do I Think? 

As I started reading Prayer Starters, I realized how valuable this book would have been when I was taking care of my mom during her battle with Alzheimer's. That was a very hard season, and I needed to be reminded to take it "one step at a time" often. Eller also shared "Jesus, I am tempted to lie down, to give up, and at times to throw my hands in the air and just quit" (29). This was me. My heart was aching, and I needed to be reminded that God's love was deep and wide – that God offers comfort and assistance in every hard time.

For those who seek to talk with God in and about hard times in a more structured manner, Prayer Starters is a wonderful resource. For those who don't know where to start, Eller offers prayer prompts and the space to write down our prayers and ideas. We then can read the scripture quotes and reflect upon them. 

I recommend Prayer Starters to those struggling and suffering in hard times. You are not alone. God is there to stand with you. Prayer Starters would make a good gift for those dealing with hard times.