Learning About Science

As part of their early education, children are often ripe for learning and one of the topics they could learn about is science. Forget any fuddy-duddy notions that science is boring and only for grown-ups, as taught in the right way, science can be immense fun for all ages to learn about, especially young children. Here are some ideas and inspiration for how parents can help provide children with an early learning experience about science.

Learning About Science At Museums and Exhibitions

The nature of science lends itself to being a great subject for museums and exhibitions. In fact, some of the best science museums in the UK do an excellent job of getting children interested in and excited by science. If you get the opportunity to take your children to these museums, then you’re likely to have a brilliant day out.

Children learn best from getting to experience things themselves, so hands-on experiments and exhibits where they can pitch in and have a go are perfect. It’s not just something for the kids to do either – mum and dad can get their hands dirty and have a go too, something that makes learn even more fun for everyone involved.

Learning About Science At Home

There are plenty of opportunities to gain an early knowledge about science at home, and what better way than through simple experiments to encorage an interest in science. Don’t worry, no Bunsen burners or chemicals are required!

Simple science-based experiments can be conducted at home with a bowl or bath of water and a selection of items that float, or don’t, such as plastic boats, pebbles, shells, conkers, leaves, small toys etc. It’s interesting for children to find out what objects float and why some don’t and the science behind this.

On a similar note, and if you happen to be a dab hand at making a paper aeroplane, you could look at how crafting a piece of paper into an aeroplane shape helps if fly through the air much better than simply trying to throw a piece of paper.

There are lots more scientific experiments that you can try together at home and lots of basic scientific theories that children can learn.

Learning About Science on TV

There are no more children’s television channels than previous generations of children were exposed to and, apart from the usual mix of cartoons and animations, many of the channels show programmes with an element of science to them.

Educational children’s TV programmes can teach a lot of useful information to young children, helping build up their basic knowledge of how things work and why things happen and give them a good foundation of knowledge to take to school.

If you’re not sure which programmes are worth your child watching, then why not view them yourself? Anything that makes science fun and teaches a valuable lesson or two, cleverly illustrating the science through fun, games, tales or experiments, is likely to be a good programme for your child to see.