Science for the Preschool Child

Parents are going to focus more on a natural approach to this subject when the child is very young. Very young children need time to observe and experiment so they can learn about the work around them. Some of the activities that we can explore with our children follow. Go for walks with your children and show them the wonders of nature. 

1. When you get home, look up the things you saw in books including encyclopedias and watch videos on the subject. 
2. Let them help you in the garden. 
3. Get a microscope (this is one of the best purchases you can make) and let them observe the anatomy of living things. Exploring sugar and salt crystals in their various forms is an excellent project that is explained in one of my favorite books--Greg’s Microscope by Millicent Selsam. She is one of the best authors of children’s science books! 
4. Help them experience what happens when you put two chemicals together like vinegar and soda. 
5. Take a trip along the Columbia River or across the state. Rocks, old homesteads, looking for arrowheads (suggested by a parent--I would be careful about this. I would not want to interfere with another’s culture; and in some areas, it is illegal to collect native artifacts). Visit the Ginko State Park and museum when you go by Vantage. It’s a wonderful place. 
6. Bird watching and identification is a lot of fun. Put out food and build different kinds of birdhouses. See what kinds of birds visit you. 
7. Have a "pet" praying mantis. Feed it, watch it catch its prey, and let it go in time to breed so that we don’t interfere with nature. 
8. Electronics and ham radio can be fun physical science hobbies that can turn into a career. 
9. Raise an animal. Take part in the fair. Learn math by computing how much it costs to raise the animal. Learn how to keep the animal healthy. Learn how to give shots. 
10. Many projects for astronomy can be a lot of fun and integrate the science with math and writing. Get a telescope if you can and enjoy the heavens. Make a solar system across your ceiling. Visit a planetarium or observatory. The Spokane Astronomical Society is a wonderful group. Star-gaze. Learn the constellations. 
11. Go camping, fishing, and hunting if you enjoy these activities. Dissection is an important part of biology and some hunter homeschoolers have had their students help cut up the animal--what a way to learn anatomy! Learn how to cook good and nutritious foods over a campfire. My favorite is to put hamburger, potatoes, carrots, and onions in aluminum foil and cooking it over the coals--very yummy! 
12. Floating vs. Sinking experiments are always fun; so are magnets. Magnets are not very expensive and children have fun walking around the house and finding what is attracted to the magnet and what isn’t. 
13. Learn about the chemical elements. Discover the different elements around your house: copper in a penny, aluminum in a piece of foil, mercury in the thermometer, nitrogen in fertilizer, iodine in the medicine cabinet, and NaCl is salt. Read the labels and find some more. The Periodic Table of Elements can be introduced as well. Find examples of each element as it is learned and make a table or chart. 
14. Liquid, solid, and gas can present a number of wonderful ideas for experiments. What happens when water freezes or when it is heated? 
15. Learn about rocks and minerals. Teach the hardness scale and how this can help us identify the rocks and minerals they find. See if you can identify a "rock" or a mineral by its streak, hardness, and cleavage. Learn the differences among igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and minerals, find them, and collect them. There is a Rock and Mineral Club in Spokane. 
16. Follow the weather. Learn to read weather maps. 
17. Play 20 questions: fish, animal, bird, reptile, amphibian. Even very young preschool love this game. Teach the characteristics of each of these kinds of animals. 
18. See where you can go for field trips. 

Some science field trips in Washington that have been suggested in the Homeschool Qualifying Course are: dig for fossils in Republic, geological tours, visit the Panhandle for a mine tour, Pacific Hide and Fur, Gardiner Caves, Columbia Basin Wildlife Refuge, Dry Falls, a fish hatchery, Northwest Seed and Pets, and the Humane Society (you might be able to volunteer here too). 

Check our lots of trade books (library books) about science and read daily to your child. The checking out of science trade books will not stop when your child gets older. In fact, it will increase.