Science at Home

As parents it is important that you incorporate school activities and learning into your home as often as possible. This helps continue learning that occurs at school and also shows children that you support what they are doing at school. I have compiled a list of 10 ideas for you to try at home in your free time with your children.

1. Edible Life Cycle of the Butterfly

This activity is perfect for the Spring when your child begins seeing butterflies flying around outside. If you have time, I recommend reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar first before starting this activity. Tracy has instructions on her blog for how to complete this activity. Check it out at the link above.

2. Make a Paper Clip Float 

This website has many good ideas for science experiments you could do in your kitchen. I chose this one to feature on my blog because it is simple and requires materials you probably have already in your house. 

3. Ear Drum Model

Did you ever wonder how your ear drum works? This model helps young scientists understand how their ear drums work when sound enter their ear. 

4. Rock Classification

This is a relatively easy and inexpensive experiment to do at home with your kids. While your children are outside playing have them collect a small container of rocks. Later, sit down with you children and talk about the different sizes and colors of the rocks they collect. Have them sort the rocks into piles based on the characteristics your family creates. 

5. Filling Up Ballons

Do you remember the balloons you bought for the ear drum experiment? You can use some of the extras for this experiment which fills up balloons in a new way. 

6. Exploding Ivory Soap

This blog post leads to two different Ivory soap experiments, and the author has links on her page to some other suggestions using Ivory soap. I highly suggest checking out this post for a fun activity that will end with some very clean kids. 

7. Controlled Fizz

Did you ever make or see a volcano experiment growing up? The author of this post provides some great suggestions on how to change the volcano experiment with different ingredients. After you try all three ideas discuss with your children why the results were different with each change. 

8. "M" is for Marshmallow 

The author of this post provides a bunch of different science experiments with marshmallows. I am a huge fan of marshmallows and would love to try some of these experiments with my children some day. 

9. Snow Storm in a Bag

Where I currently live, it snows a lot. No matter where you live though this experiment would be great for exploring the concept of snow, and it is relatively easy to create with materials you should have lying around your house already. 

10. Dancing Oobleck 

Even though I'm an adult I really want to try this experiment. Supposedly this cool solid-liquid mixture dances when you play music around it. 

I hope you enjoyed my suggestions! Please comment below if you have any recommendations for cheap and easy science experiments that will make a big difference in your child's education.