Welcome back. I'm busy doing my homeschool planning for next year but I'll be here occasionally keeping you updated. You may find just what you came for and if you don't, then keep checking back!

Each month I will post and answer some selective questions that I receive about homeschooling via my “Ask Brenda a Question” form in the sidebar of my blog.

I love getting comments from my bloggy readers and I really love getting questions from moms about homeschooling. After getting lots of private emails about homeschooling, I thought that it might benefit everyone if I posted the questions and answers right here on my blog.  I also added the form in the side column to make it easier to send the questions to me.

If you have any homeschool questions, feel free to ask!  I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.  Who know, you may even find your question posted in the next month’s – Ask Brenda.

Hi, I really like your blog! I’m a Family Home Daycare Provider and my hubby and I are waiting to adopt. My question is, what “science” activities should I try with toddlers/ Pre–K? Any other ideas/ activities I could do with toddlers/ preschoolers?

Thanks! Stacey

Dear Stacey,

Young children are naturally curious.  The best way to nurture their eagerness to explore is to be curious with them.  Ask questions and learn from hands-on experiences together.  Ideas will become concepts as children construct their own reality.

When my children are young I simply play with them around the house and in nature to build a foundation for scientific principles.  The principles of science are all around us.

• Which toys float or sink in a sink full of water? (density)
• What is the difference between Moon Sand and Playfoam? (viscosity)
• How can we get a bubble to last longer?  grow bigger? (chemistry)
• What do we find when we dig 1″ below the soil?  3″?  5″? (natural science)
• How long will it take to freeze popsicles? (crystalline structures)
• Why does a paper airplane fly straight or curved? (physics)

Play, play, play

As you can see the small sampling of play activities I mentioned is in the simplest form of a major branch of science or a scientific vocabulary word.

All the understandings that your child connects with at an early age helps them understand the harder concepts when they come along.

My two favorite pre-k resources that have taught me to encourage a child to explore scientific principles have been:

1. More Mudpies to Magnets: Science for Young Children
2. Janice VanCleave’s Big Book of Play and Find Out Science Projects (Janice VanCleave’s Science for Fun)

Some other things to do with children this age are:

Make and play with home-made playdough

Teaching with a toddler in tow

Muli-level schooling with little ones