How to raise a science lover

 For many people, science is a wonderful hobby, for others a career and the fact is that it’s a vital part of life that improves our world in many ways. 

Children are innately curious and you may find that because science is so broad, there will be a part of it to please every child.

Children, from a young age like to know all they can about the world around them. They show this in their constant questions about their environment. 

 

“Why is blue a colour?”

“Why does the rain come down?”

“Who made the sky?”

 

These are all genuine questions asked by children and which of course, you can answer via science. The best way to help your child with the answers to these questions is to know them yourself! So, the first thing you should do, if you are not a natural scientist, is to learn all you can yourself.

 

How to help my child learn more

 

Enjoying learning through play is a great way to approach this. Games and experiments can be combined so your child is learning about science whilst they’re playing.

 

For small children, water play is a great first step in science. The simple act of freezing water to turn it into ice is fascinating and children will particularly like the idea of freezing objects into blocks of ice and then watching them melt.

 

You can freeze plastic toys, flowers from the garden, sweets and all sorts of things which can then be admired as ice blocks! Similarly, gardening in your own garden or a container can help children to understand more about biology and botany at once.

 

Freedom to explore

 

Some home experiments are messy but that’s great for children because they mostly love to make a mess! Making slime is one example of messy science and it’s universally popular. There are lots of great tutorials online.

 

Allowing your child to ‘make potions’ is fun too. A selection of clear plastic containers and some ingredients such as plants, flowers, salt, the food colouring will make them feel like miniature scientists as they work out what happens when things are mixed together.

 

This independent school in New York believes all children are natural learners and only need to have that ability unlocked in order to achieve.