What Science Looks Like at Our House

This is a revisit of this post from August 2009.

Some day-to-day events …

• cooking together (you can see my posts about breadmaking or ice-cream in a bag), but there is also baking and everyday cooking
• taking a bath with bubbles, containers for pouring, a water wheel and plenty of objects to test what floats and what sinks
• gardening (with dad or grandma) – potting, watering, mulching, raking and more
• caring for animals – dogs, chickens and fish
• taking a walk or a drive and pointing out interesting things that we see
• looking for wildlife in our backyard, especially birds, frogs and insects
• blowing bubbles
• playing with magnets and cars and ramps
• building with Lego, recycled materials, wood and glue and deconstructing old electrical appliances
• experimenting with different painting techniques and art materials
• digging, filling containers and constructing dams and channels in the sandpit

What sort of scientific skills are developing here?

• observing and describing,
• collecting information,
• learning scientific terminology,
• sorting and classifying,
• questioning,
• and imagining solutions

This is not the same as being able to conduct a rigorous scientific experiment to test a theory, but these types of activities are the first foundation of scientific knowledge and without the young child’s curiosity and questioning no-one would ever become a scientist.

What sort of science do your children do at home?