You are rushing around trying to get kids to sports, music lessons, teach, and do the things like laundry and dinner. You feel the time crunch. It is real. For all of our timesavers, it is easy to find yourself just adding more things to fill the time. Are you finding time for homeschool science?

The pressure on families to create magical memories and give kids access to the best experiences can feel daunting on the best of days and come to boiling level frustration on the bad days.

When you add in the pressure of educating your little darlings…. it is clear why you are looking for some support (by the way – I do the same things).

Is this a passing phase?

My #1 passion is science. It has been for a very long time. I have other interests and maybe even they could be passions (I’m thinking about you Disney World). Even I have been guilty of putting science on the backburner during times of struggle.

That’s OK.

Sometimes hard is just too hard. When my mom died and we had a year of upheaval with several moves, we focused on the bare minimum. You can experience a season where less is more. If you’ve had any major life event like having a baby, experiencing a death, job change, etc it’s okay to give yourself some breathing room.

The problem is that sometimes you (and I) can look back and see what started out as a necessary break became a pattern. Now for me, because I LOVE science, it was easy for me to get back to it.

If you don’t love science (or it might even feel a little intimidating), you might look back on long stretches of time where science was glossed over or ignored altogether. That is when it is time for a regroup.

Why do you need to make time for homeschool science?

Your kids need to be prepared for the job market they are facing AND be able to make informed decisions based (at least in part) on science. It is easy to look at your sweet 10 year old (or not to so sweet) and not think about them being the breadwinner or making health care decisions about their own health (and their family’s) someday. The reality is that if all goes well – they will be.

Science-based jobs are the fastest growing job market. By the way that includes fields like nursing.

Sitting in doctor’s offices making life and death decisions and basic science can go a long way in understanding explanations they may be given.

In our kids’ lifetimes, they will need to make decisions about medical care, food choices, chemicals for their lawns, and even a basic understanding of chemistry so they don’t blow up the bathroom while cleaning.

Science is important.

One of my favorite things I ever read about the pushing out of science and social studies in the elementary classroom was the sentiment that reading and math are not their own subjects (not typically) they are the tools you use to further other disciplines like science and social studies.

Am I saying that studying great works of literature isn’t worthwhile, no I am not saying that. I’m saying that you need to also be teaching science to your kids.

How to make time for science lessons?

Have you ever had times where your read-aloud routine wasn’t working? Did you decide that reading would forever more be something you didn’t do or did you spend a little time thinking about how to tweak your schedule to make it work again?

You are going to have to make a decision about science the same way. Follow that famous athletic footwear company and find a way to get it done.

Our youngest is a preschooler this year so this is the first year in a very long time that we haven’t had an opinionated infant or toddler controlling our schedule. That means we enjoy flexibility. If you are like us, don’t worry.

Making time for science doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to schedule science from 10:45-12:00 every day. It means that you need to be real about where your time goes in a week and figure out how to make time for science in your schedule.

Tips to get homeschool science back into your week:

-Science is best done in larger blocks of time.

2-3 hours once a week is better than 20 minutes every day.

-Hands-on learning is not a reward it is the actual science.

This was a hard lesson, but it has been a game changer for our homeschool.

-Use an easy to follow curriculum.

If you are already finding getting science done a challenge, a curriculum that requires an hour of prep every time you drag it out isn’t going to work. Open and go always wins at our house.

-Plan ahead, but don’t go crazy.

In all honesty, you don’t know with 100% certainty what you will be covering in 6 weeks. Try to keep an eye on supplies so that when you do science next week you have everything you need on hand – there is nothing that kills a science lesson like not having the things you need.

-Work together.

Create a small co-op of 2-3 families that meet 2-4 times a month for science classes. You will find that the extra accountability will help when you’ve had normal household things that hold you back. You can rotate who is responsible for supplies.

-Have a computer with internet readily available.

The kids are going to ask questions – a lot of them. As they get older, there is nothing like a game of stump the adult to get middle schoolers and high schoolers excited about learning instead have the kids look up the answers and tell everyone else.

-Don’t be afraid of failure.

Sometimes things don’t work out. You have 3 options:

Get upset.
Move on. Sometimes it isn’t important so moving on is best.
Try to troubleshoot the problem. Sometimes it is better to spend some time working with the kids to figure out what went wrong.

Try to focus on 2 or 3