RoundAbout Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I need some super fun, hands-on, age appropriate science activities for my 4.5 year-old son to do with daddy a few evenings per week. Even though we're just starting Pre-K in the fall, DH wants to develop the habit of being involved in our homeschooling. My son loves science-y stuff - dinosaurs, space, weather, human body, nature, etc. etc. We read a ton of those "Cat-in-the-Hat learning library books" and "Let's Read and Find Out" books, but I often don't have the time or energy to do hands-on stuff as much as I like. Any ideas would be helpful - books, activities, experiments, kits, anything! The grandparents love to buy and send educational stuff too, so it would be great to have some suggestions for them (My MIL sent the Insect Lore Butterfly Pavilion this spring and my son *LOVED* it). We have BFSU but I don't really want to start a formal curriculum until Kindergarten. Really I just want it to be fun time with daddy learning to love learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Janice VanCleave experiment books, and get a microscope to look at everything around him. (Dd was the same way. BFSU is fabulous for that sort of kid.) Also perhaps a "science experiment" box with things like ballons, funnels, empty pop bottles, straws, eye droppers, food coloring, tape, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 You might look at Elemental Science Intro to Science. It uses More Mudpies to Magnets for experiments, and it also includes nature walks. Getting the schedule and books cost about $30 total, and I think it's great for PreK'er (I tried it for first grade and it was too light for my kid, but he would have learned from it at 3 or 4. Both my boys loved the experiments, and they were very simple to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 We used a lot of the ideas from The Usborne Book of Science Things to Make and Do for preK. We just had the book, which was appealing to the kids. They would pull it out and ask to do things from it. But it's very crafty and less sciencey if that makes sense. I also had the book Science is Simple, which is a preK science curriculum. I didn't end up using it much, but it had good ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Lots of great ideas already. I'd echo Mudpies to Magnets and add Janice VanCleave's Play and Find Out about the Human Body and The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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