I Can’t Remember

No, I’m not crazy (about this, anyway!)
Yes, I know it’s August.
And if your family is like mine, right now you are swimming in “Back to School” catalogs.

If a company sends you ONE “Back to School” Catalog, they’re liable to send you FOUR or more Holiday Catalogs.

August is one of the best times to tell which mailing lists you are on.
If you wait until November, it’s too late. Why? because if you tell companies to stop sending you catalogs, it can take up to two months to get them to stop (at least that is what several of them told me last November!)

Save yourself the headache and cancel those catalogs now!
The easiest way I’ve found is to go to CatalogChoice.org

What is science?
We all know what it is, but how do we explain it to our kids?
What knowledge do they need before they can even understand basic concepts?

Magnification
This concept seems obvious–but most science, from geology to biology to astronomy, relies on the ability to see things at a higher magnification than the human eye can see. You can explain this concept all day, but seeing really is believing.
You don’t need a microscope or a telescope, just a hand-held magnifying lens.
Experiments With a Hand Lens (True Book (Franklin Watts, Inc.).) by Salvatore Tocci is a good starting book. Get a hand lens and replicate the experiments.
If your child is an artist, try The Art Book for Children, Book Two (Art Book for Children). In this book is a reproduction of 12 paintings by the Limbourg brothers. The paintings are tiny and require a magnifying lens to see all the details. My 6-year old was fascinated for 45 minutes, and really understood the concept of magnification by the end.
I also recommend that you explain what a telescope and a microscope are, after you have let them explore magnification with a hand lens.

Scientific Method
Teachers always made this way too complicated when I was a child. The definition usually includes scientific jargon which also needs to be defined.
Try How to Think Like a Scientist: Answering Questions by the Scientific Method by Stephen Kramer. We read it as a “chapter book” in the evenings for a few nights. It really explains the concept of science, scientific experiments, and using the scientific method in accessible language that most children can understand. The reading level is described as ages 9-12, but if an adult reads it to them a much younger child can understand it.
This book also introduces the concept of control groups and variables.

And it show that sometimes the results are not always the same, so you have to do an experiment many times to be sure. (This concept seems obvious to an adult, but it is not intuitive knowledge and has to be taught to a small child!)

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