As I’ve noted before, it is amazing how well children observe the world. My kids notice things everywhere that I have become completely oblivious to after years of exposure. If you look closely at children’s drawings, you will notice that seemingly insignificant details achieve huge scale. They don’t understand perspective, but they also haven’t created mental filters and put on blinders the way most adults have.
A science notebook is a great way for your kids to illustrate and catalog their discoveries and observations. You can buy a lab notebook, but it work equally well to just use a spiral notebook, a loose leaf binder they can add pages to, or a composition book.
Send your child outside and tell them to find a bug or plant and draw it. Have them keep tally of how many birds they hear sing in five minutes. In the fall, they can press leaves in it. If it’s rainy, have them find a rock or shell from one of their collections and draw it. My son loves to copy facts about his favorite animals from National Geographic!
If they do a science experiment, have them draw a picture of what they did and make a chart of the results. Anything they can think of is great. Be sure to have them or help them write the date on each page they write something on. Tell them this is very important for a junior scientist!
Someday, far in the future, it may help them remember what it is like to look at the world like a kid!
Tags: science for kids
Creative Mama 
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