Studying Science in the Summer is Good for Everyone

Homeschooling is like a juggling act-Math, Reading, laundry, lunch, baby, projects, etc. So often when we drop a task, we feel like a failure. I wasn’t the brave “school year-round mom”, but I did find dropping history and science until the summer worked out brilliantly.

I killed two birds with one stone by staving off the “I’m bored” comments throughout the summer and lightened my school load during the year. After giving my children two weeks off in June to unwind, I called them together for a powwow to see what hands-on science projects they were interested in.

 

We started with the most popular topics in our science book and stuck the other ones in later. I kept schedules loose so I had fun too and left any light book work for a short time in between topics.

Here are some of the topics we studied that are loaded with fun activities to keep little ones busy:

  • Visit local wild life sanctuaries
  • Create nature scrapbooks
  • Explore pond water 
  • Collect a frog and reptile zoo
  • Rock collections and geology
  • Bug studies and collections
  • Gardening
  • Animal habitat studies
  • Draw animals in nature or at the zoo- notebook and take photos
  • Library trips for living science books on these topics
  • Buy binoculars and do a bird study
  • Check out bird songs from the library or online sources
  • Catch and study lightening bugs and light sources
  • Practice observing and recording
  • Make a rain gauge and measure the rain
  • Study weather and make your own almanac

 

The year we learned about recycling we made these adorable children’s flower gardens. Little hands loved to add the plastic bugs and shells while older children planted the flowers and I ended up with a beautiful planter. It was a success all around! So the next time your child says, “Let’s study frogs!” Tell them, “Just wait for summer!”

Materials

*1 clean plastic lettuce box

*Garden Soil

*Ten annual flowers to plant

*Windmill picks

*Plastic bugs, butterflies, snakes, rocks, shells, colored glass pebbles (all can be found at a dollar store)

With an older child or adult, poke holes in the 4 corners of the bottom of the lettuce box with knife or screwdriver for drainage.

Pour soil in half way up to the top of the box. Children can arrange the flowers and plant them near the back of the container, leaving the front to decorate with rocks, shells, bugs, etc.