When the kids get out of school for the summer, the “summer slide” buzz begins. If you are not familiar, this is not the fun piece of playground equipment, but rather a regression of learning. You see, once the kids get out of school, they tend to turn off their learning and get into play mode. If we don’t find creative ways for getting kids excited about science, math or reading, they will get stuck with the dreaded “summer slide.” The tough thing about the “summer slide” is teachers will spend several weeks refreshing our kids on the things they forgot they learned the year before! My kids enjoy science, so it is pretty easy for me to find fun ways to keep them on track with their learning levels. Here are just 5 ways to getting kids excited about science this summer:
Go Into the Kitchen: This summer, my kids are going into the kitchen with me. We are creating fun science experiments we can eat! This week, we made butter by shaking heavy whipping cream until our arms fell off.
Go to the Aquarium: When we walk through the aquarium, it is easy to skip over many of the details in the exhibits. To avoid this from happening, I made up a scavenger hunt for the kids. This way, they will need to find items in the museum and answer questions I have written for them. We did this at our local aquarium and it was a blast!
Make a Volcano: Ok, I know it is pretty standard, but if your kids have never made the baking soda and vinegar eruption, it is pretty cool! We found a volcano kit at the toy store and we all had a blast putting it together and watching it bubble over!
Plant Herbs: This is a two-fold tip because not only do the kids learn about gardening, they can help in the kitchen when their herbs have sprouted!
Ask Why: It’s easy to be a scientist! Simply look around and ask “Why?” When our kids were little, it seemed “Why?” was the question of the day! Now that my kids are older, they don’t ask it as often, and now I think it is more important than ever! If you cannot think of any questions on your own, you can print these really cool brochures from the Making Science Make Sense® ToolBox from Bayer. Bayer’s Making Science Make Sense® program is helping kids everywhere keep their imaginations alive this summer. They are encouraging families and getting kids excited about science this summer. Science can be stargazing, bird watching, baking and seesawing. It can also be visiting a zoo or aquarium or making butter or freezing an ice pop! Making Science Make Sense® (MSMS) is Bayer’s award-winning initiative that advances science literacy across the United States. MSMS allows students to learn science by doing science through hands-on, inquiry-based experiences that involve observing, experimenting, hypothesizing, analyzing and testing.
Bayer has created a ton of exciting hands-on lessons for kids, beginning in elementary school to spark their scientific curiosity at a young age. I spent over an hour on the Making Science Make Sense® (MSMS) website. I was browsing their information and downloaded the Bayer Making Science Make Sense® toolbox Experiment Guide 1. This 12 page brochure is filled with fun experiments and information for getting kids excited about science. You can also access their Experiment Cards, Audio Series Experiment Book, Activity Books, or even the Periodic Table of the Elements. Here is a short video to show you how the MSMS program works:
Peachy @ The Peach Kitchen says
Thank you for sharing your tips. My daughter is already excited about science. I bet she would love to make that volcano.
Camesha | Mama Motivator says
These are great ideas. We’ve tried many of them. My son’s favorite has to be the volcano! He wanted to do it over and over.
R U S S says
I love these tips that you’ve put together. Science can be intimidating especially when you have classmates who are geeks in the making, lol. Good thing is, parents can be more creative and make their children appreciate Science even with the stuff that we normally see at home.
Adanna says
These are great ways to get your kids into science. We recently went to the zoo and my daughter got to touch a dead penguin. It doesnt get more scientific than that LOL
Erin says
We love to make butter over here! The kids think its so awesome that they can make it by shaking it!
tiffany says
This is a great post! We love trying to teach our daughter about science. We love talking to her about space and recently showed her a portion of Planet Earth- and she is only 3. She LOVED it!
danielle x. says
The MSMS program sounds like a great way to keep kids engaged and learning all summer long. My kids definitely go through the summer slide, so I am always looking for fun ways to get them interested.
Martine - MeUnfinished says
Those look like great ideas and I will be trying them with my kid. I have known about the cream making butter and the volcano, but I will try the others with my 1st grader. Thanks!
Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly says
As a former Special Education Teacher I always encourage parents to keep up the momentum of learning during the summer as it makes it easier for the kids to transition back to school in the fall, and when you can combine learning with FUN all the better! 🙂
Rebecca Swenor says
These are all great tips for getting kids excited about science. I love the idea of the kids making butter out of the heavy whip cream because we did this in school years ago. Thanks for sharing.
CourtneyLynne says
I just love these tips!!! I use to love science when I was little!! Nothing better than a fun experiment! It wasn’t until high school and adding math into science that I started to not like it as much lol
Samatha Square says
Love those ideas! We actually made a volcano this past weekend!!
Jessica Simms says
My kids absolutely LOVE science. They randomly leave me their experiments around the house which of course are tough to clean up.
Dina says
my kids love science. we’ve done the volcano and also seen it work in action in our tub to clear drains. 🙂
Rosey says
I’d like to try the herbs. I’d love to grow some spearmint too. I think the kids would like eating those.
Nickida says
I never thought about an herb garden as a science experiment. I have to get my kids ready for science it’s coming soon. They are getting older and school work is also getting harder. Great examples. We’ll have to try some of these before school starts.
Maria says
My little one already gets so excited with learning, and he particularly enjoys science. This would be a pice of cake for me to get him involved.
Lisa says
I didn’t know penguins don’t have ears! One of my favorite science experiments is making volcanoes. So many cool things you can try with kids to keep their interest up.
Annemarie LeBlanc says
You have a great way of stirring interest in science! There are indeed many ways to learn about science and apply it in every day lives and the best venue is always the kitchen. 🙂
Chrystal | YUM eating says
Kiddo love science, but not to the extent that her dad does. She does struggle with it and he tend to talk above her, forgetting how old she is, which confuses her more than anything. Poor kid.
Faye Wilkerson says
I find that children love to learn. Great job showing them that science is fun.
Jacqui Odell says
My son already loves science type stuff, so I know he would love those ideas.
Nikki says
These are such fun ideas! My son loves science. These get ME excited about it though, since I’m a little challenged with it!
Mykidsguide says
These are all fun ideas. I’m glad that my kids love science. Aside from planting herbs, They love to dig the soil and looks for crawlers, then they try to identify them.
Uplifting Families says
We took the kids to Sea World and to the aquarium this summer. It was a ton of fun. The boys got to learn about the animals while having fun.
Lynndee says
Our son has always been fascinated with science. Never thought of creating a volcano in our living room though. That would be fun!
Chubskulit Rose says
My daughter is very interested with Science but my son isn’t. Thanks for sharing this!
Wandering Carol says
I’ve never made the volcano! I might have to do it myself. And I’m all about herbs – I think these are great ways to keep kids learning.
Shaney Vijendranath says
Love the ideas! My daughter loves playing around and exploring so I think she is going to love science.
Heather says
My son just ended kindergarten and I’ve spent the summer making sure he has kept up on his reading, writing and math. We’ve failed to do any of the science stuff yet, but I love all these ideas.
ricci says
These look like really fun things to do!! I love science and I think kids would really enjoy these “experiments”!
Theresa says
As a teacher and a mom, I love these ideas! I’m sure my kids would enjoy them very much too.
Nina Say says
These are wonderful ideas. My daughter is a science buff and will love them.
Christy Maurer says
These are such great ideas for making learning fun. I always liked doing things that were fun and educational at the same time!
Robin Rue (@massholemommy) says
These are all great tips. Lucky for me, my kids are both into science on their own:)
Stacie @ Divine Lifestyle says
I’ve actually never done anything like most of those before. We live in Georgia, so my kids run around in the woods a lot. That’s nature science, I suppose.