In my experience, the biggest challenge related to science lessons is doing the experiments. But we can do a few things to increase our motivation and eliminate obstacles. For example, we can gather all the supplies needed for the whole term (or the whole year) in advance. After all, when the baking soda is nowhere to be found, or mom forgot to order the magnets, the lesson is over before it starts!
I’ve invited Emily Kiser, my co-host on A Delectable Education Podcast and homeschool organizer extraordinaire, to share her method for gathering and storing supplies. She has four children and, therefore, will use these supplies repeatedly for several years. But beyond that, she has found a way to share the cost and the blessing with others.
Emily originally shared this tip with our ADE Patreons, where she often posts tips for organizing everything from her planning notebook to her kids’ paper stuff to her school cabinet. I hope her ideas here will help you prepare for the science experiments your kids will do in the upcoming school year.
A few years ago, Morgan Conner of @CMintheNaturalState made Science Supply boxes to go along with each of Nicole’s science guides, and she “checks them out” to the members of her CM Reading Group, just like we check out Five in a Row unit boxes to our library members! I thought at that time it was a brilliant idea and wanted to use her idea for my own Natural History Club. We keep our group pretty small since we all have 4 children, so there are just 4 families–20 people make a lot of noise walking down a trail, but that’s another story. As my eldest will be in Form 2 next year, and my sister’s eldest is in his second year of Form 2, I offered to gather the supplies and assemble the boxes this summer. Continue reading