How to Teach Science to Kindergarteners
Science Activities For Young Kids - Phoinix Durden - Medium
Without boring parental preparations???I am a stay-at-home mum of twins & previously a scientist. I spend many hours trying to teach my twins through play and the part I struggled with the most, is the long preparations before an activity. It would usually go like this: I run around trying to prepare, my kids would be bored making messes or un-preparing what I prepared OR they would argue with each-other ending up in tears and uninterested to experiment with all my long efforts of preparation. As you can imagine, this was discouraging for myself and my children.Then, I tried watching Youtube videos with science activities together with my kids. The idea was that we will be watching the videos together, and follow their instructions to set up and play our science activities! I thought that if they participate in the preparation, it would be great as they won’t get bored or upset. I hoped that we would all end up with positiveness and willingness to do the experiments after-all. But we failed to this as well! The videos we found were:Too long and therefore not so interesting for my 4-year-oldsNot stimulating enough to keep young children’s attentionRequiring too many or complicated items that we usually didn’t have at home ORNot accurate enough for us to replicate the experiments quickly and easilyWe would end up searching and watching tons of Youtube videos to find something to do, and by the time we found it, we would all be tired and bored.I decided to take matters into my own hands and create what I was looking for: Quick videos, engaging for a young audience (2–7 Year-Olds) with easy science activities that use household items.I created a Youtube channel with videos designed especially for parents and young kids to watch together. A channel where you can follow along, together with your child, to prepare and play easy, fun, STEM activities using household items only. Encouraging kids to prepare their activities is benefiting both: parents and children. Parents avoid long preparations and kids learn to follow simple instructions: a useful skill in life!Let’s check out an example video. This paper cutting craft is very popular with young kids and even though basic, very educational. It helps young children gain spatial knowledge and understand the concept of symmetry. Additionally, they get to practice their scissor skills! Every time a child repeats the experiment, a unique result is produced, which makes it super engaging, fun, and something they can do on their own! You can talk all about shapes and color them or stick them to a different paper creating a beautiful symmetrical card.Including my four-year-old twins in the preparation of our weekly science activities solved lots of arguments and made us play and love science activities and experiments. If you get to try out my videos with your kids, I would be interested to know how it goes. Let me know, ask me questions & stay connected!