Early science type learning?

I was listening to Science Fridays today on NPR, and I was reminded of how much I hope my boys learn about science and applied math from a young age.

I was also thinking about how they have lots of books, and I am always reading to them or singing, or talking to them, so they are surrounded by the language arts. But are there proactive things I can do that would install a curiosity about the natural sciences? I guess just letting them experiment with their natural curiosity is a big part of early science learning, but are there other things I can do/expose them to that would be helpful? They will be in the garden next spring, and I know that will be helpful. Does dropping their cup off their tray and watching fall to the ground over and over again count as science learning? :laughing:


I grew up without much of an opportunity to experiment with the world of science (overprotective mom and overly strict dad :laughing: ), but I really hope the boys will find wonder in the natural world at a young age.

Any ideas are much appreciated!

 

There are a lot of good activities with weather that they can easily do. You can also read books about things like the sun. I think building blocks and learning shapes and numbers also relates well to science.

 

Well, I don't know if this is really science per say, but my kids love the outdoors. We go outside every day weather permitting. We look at bugs, flowers, trees, the wind, butterflies, etc etc. They point those things out now and are very interested in them. I had 2 cherry tomato plants out this summer, and they loved helping to water and harvest the tomatos (and eat them). We have a water table, so they like to scoop up water and play with the water wheel (physics??).

I don't have any education in early childhood education though, so I'm anxious to hear other replies!

 

DH is actually a science educator (astronomer by training, works in a museum); most of the things he's involved with are for older kids, but I know my guys will get some good opportunities for learning in the next few years. Besides letting them experiment with gravity (which I think is totally valid! ), we teach numbers, have books about bugs, go outside and talk about the things we see, garden, etc. My mother also got them a book about "animals in the sky" which is about animal-shaped constellations. Of course DH loves this. I'm not an educator, but I think at this age it's all about laying the foundation for enjoying learning, and giving them the tools to reason. Language is critical to this!

BTW, I love Science Friday!

 

Blocks (or other building toys), water toys, gardening and baking all involve science and math.

 

You don't have to make up science lessons, everyday things you do use scientific principles. Vacuuming is physics, cleaning is chemistry AND microbiology. Sorting and grouping are math concepts but they also come in handy for Biology. Here are some more:

Balls/trucks/planes/parachute men (physics)
Zoo/Aquarium/farm (biology)

Weather is also good, as are seasons and general astronomy concepts like moon/sun/stars.

Cooking is also good. It teaches them mixing, measurements as well as different states of matter.

I also taught my then 4 year old chemistry (we made a baking soda/vinegar volcano) but my guess is that might be too much for this age

 

Ditto pp's. You don't need to worry about doing specific science activities, lots of normal things to do with children have a science element to them. Just talk about things in a more scientific way (like helping them evaluate what's going on), e.g;

Water-give them different sized cups/jugs to fill and empty. Count with them how many little cups it takes to fill a big cup, what happens if you pour the big cup into the little cup? Why did the water spill out of the little cup? Or give them some ice cubes to put in the water and ask what will happen, when the ice has melted ask if the water feels different. The next time put a little food colouring into the ice cubes when you make them and ask what they think will happen to the water when the ice melts. My lot also enjoyed playing the 'sink or float' game. I would collect up a bunch of water safe toys and items like a pebble or spoon, then one by one they'd guess whether the things would sink or float and we'd drop them into the water to find out. (As they got older I'd ask why they thought what they did). Once we'd done all of them they could play with the things.
Cooking-just something simple like making cookies or cupcakes/muffins is a good opportunity. Show them how you measure things and talk about how the food changes as you go along. I talk about the colours of things and how the texture becomes different: if you cream butter and sugar it looks yellow, but if you use brown sugar it turns brown. The sugar disappears into the butter. Once you add eggs it goes gloopy. Sifting the flour and mixing gently puts air in and makes the cakes nice and soft/fluffy.
Playing outside-just take any opportunity to let them look up close at animals/insects/plants. Growing something is a great idea, you can start with something like cress which grows really fast so they don't have to be too patient. Talk to them about things like the names for different parts of flowers and why they're there ("the flowers look pretty and smell nice so that the bees and butterflies will want to visit them."). Do things like counting the legs on insects or go on a snail hunt after it rains. Talk to them about the changes you get with each season.
Cars etc-talk to them about forces-"Wow! You pushed the car so hard. Look how far it zoomed!" "What if I push it gently? Mine went slow."

I'm not sure how old your kids are but there are also some great science-based books around. We like the Wonderwise series, although some are better than others so you might want to try and find them in a library to look through, The World is Full of Babies was/is a hit here. For older children (4/5+) Robert E. Wells has some terrific books. Our particular favourite is Is a blue whale the biggest thing there is? and, along the same lines, What's smaller than a pygmy shrew? and How do you lift a lion?

Have fun!

 

Just wanted to add one of my favourite etsy stores that I bet people in this thread would enjoy: Here.
Valerie, I bet your husband would love this poster.

 

I :wub: Tiffany's etsy shop! We have the "A-B-C's for nerdy babies" poster AND "Every baby is a scientist" poster.

To the OP: Lots of good suggestions here. We talk about everything we see and I ask them what they think about it. Between 1 and 2 I did most of the talking (Asking and answering my own questions), but when my girls were about 2 they started asking questions too. Now at 3 1/2 they love coming up with 'hypotheses' (thanks Dinosaur train!), and talking about how they think things work. Then we look up the answers together on the computer.

 

Ha, thanks for that; it gave him a chuckle!

 

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

I taught for 14 years and often felt science was sometimes overlooked and it was up to the teacher to come up with a program with activities since many elementary schools don't have texts or a particular program school wide like they do reading and math. (This is just my experience)

So I felt that I at least wanted to introduce the basic Science concepts and like it was mentioned above you can use simple items to introduce these concepts like measuring cups, tape measure,etc. We also did simple activities and experiments. Our most popular activity is the:

Celery Experiment

Here are a list and how to's for other activities and each tells what concepts they involve: Science Activities

I'm not sure how old your children are but we started the simplest activities from about 2.5 years old.

 

Thank you for posting this! I absolutely love her work. I can't pretend to understand half of some of the laws and formulas stuff, but it all really appeals to me anyway. Looking forward to getting some her posters - who would have thought I'd get excited about a prime numbers poster?