Teaching Homeschool Science

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Science seems to be one of the most difficult things for many homeschool parents to teach.  It’s a complex subject with many different facets, and some homeschool parents don’t exactly understand a lot of it themselves.

Well, the good news is you can make learning science fun for your children AND for you!  You can learn together, and learning together makes it easier and more enjoyable.

While it’s important to concentrate on firm lesson plans and homework-style lessons sometimes, it’s also very important to get some hands-on experience.  This is what makes learning science easy and fun.  Trying to teach science without any hands-on work will not only be potentially boring, but it will be harder to grasp many of the concepts, too.

Here are some ways you can experience science hands-on:

• Visit a pond and take water samples.  View them under a microscope and describe on paper what you see.
• Visit the beach and take notes about the ecosystem.  What types of plants live on the beach?  Which creatures live in the tide pools?  What types of animals live in the ocean near the beach?
• Cook something like bread.  Explain how the yeast works to make the bread rise, what the various ingredients do for the bread, and what would happen if each ingredient were left out.
• Grow a garden.  Children can learn about botany, food supply, pest control, organic gardening, and where their food comes from.
• Get a chemistry set and experiment.  Did you have one of these as a kid?  They’re a lot of fun and very educational!
• Get a telescope and watch the stars.  Point out the various constellations and draw maps of the ones you see.
• Go on nature walks.  Identify plant species and animal species.  Document when and where you located each species, what they were doing, what time of day they were seen, and how many times they were seen.

Teaching homeschool science can be fun and rewarding for the entire family.  It’s just important to focus part of your time and energy on the hands-on part, rather than spending all of your time memorizing binomial nomenclature and the parts of cells!

Free Homeschool Lessons

Welcome to Free Homeschool Lessons.  I am a homeschool mom of 5 beautiful children.  Only one of my children has attended public school, and it was a bad experience that we would never repeat.  We made the choice to homeschool our children for many reasons.  For us, it was an easy choice.  For many, it’s not so simple.

One thing that made it easier for us to choose homeschooling is the fact that we work at home.  Because we own our own business, we don’t have to be at work certain hours, we’re home all day to supervise the kids, and we have more time available because we don’t have to commute to work.

For parents who work, choosing homeschooling can be considerably harder.  When you have to deal with work and commuting, it takes away a substantial part of your day, and homeschool can certainly interfere with the time you do have left.

Still, we believe homeschool is the ONLY option for our family.  Here is a partial list of some of the reasons we chose homeschooling for our children.

• We don’t agree with some of the things that are taught in public schools.
• We wanted to teach our children our own set of moral values.
• We didn’t want our children corrupted by children who are allowed to run rampant and behave terribly.
• We didn’t want our children to be bullied or harassed.
• We didn’t want to put our children at risk from children who might harm them.
• We didn’t want them to be exposed to additional illnesses.
• We wanted to protect them from drugs and alcohol for as long as possible.
• We wanted to be able to choose who our children socialized with until they’re older.
• We wanted them to have more attention during the learning process.
• We wanted more control over what they learned.
• We wanted them to have some say in what they learn, and how.

There were SO many reasons for us to choose this, and so few for us to choose public school.  For us, this was the right choice.  This won’t be the right choice for everyone!  We certainly don’t want to push this lifestyle onto anyone who isn’t ready for it or doesn’t want it, and we don’t want anyone to feel guilty if they don’t choose this for their family.  You have the right to choose what you want to do for your own children!

But for those who do choose this, we wanted to offer a little help.  We know what it’s like to struggle in the beginning to create lesson plans, organize your day, fit everything in, and find good lessons without spending a fortune.

This blog is to share our experiences with homeschooling, help you plan lessons, help you organize your day, and just give you general help and advice when you need it.  If you’ve chosen to homeschool your kids, good for you!  We’re happy to have you!

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