How to teach kids the basics of scientific knowledge

Tips for parents, with the help of which you can involve preschoolers in scientific knowledge

Substantive provisions:

• Science classes develop research and observation skills in children.
• Most children love science because they get great pleasure from the opportunity to look at the world in a different way.
• There are all kinds of activities that can be done at home to strengthen and develop your child's curiosity.

Children are born scientists

Children are curious by nature. They look at the world around them every day and develop their own ideas about what they see and hear. We want every child and every adult to experience a sense of wonder, curiosity and discovery throughout their lives, so that each of us never leaves the desire to explore this world again and again. That is why it is so important to instil a love of science from a child's early years.

What happens in the first grade of school

In the first year of education, the child learns to come up with his own theories about why certain phenomena occur, to test these ideas in practice and to look for answers to his questions in various sources - from group leaders, teachers, other adults, in books or the Internet. At school, the child's attention is emphasized on the fact that curiosity is incredibly important for science.

Curiosity helps the child in many other areas as well - it promotes the development of observation skills, problem solving and independent research. All of them are useful in learning other school subjects, such as mathematics, mother tongue, visual arts.

The teacher will teach the child to observe, identify and describe similar phenomena, using such characteristics as size, shape, colour and weight. Teachers also teach children to sort things into categories; explain that objects and phenomena do not always behave as we expect, and that science often generates more questions than it answers. Conducting simple experiments to test various theories will certainly become part of the child's educational process at school.

What should parents do in addition to the upcoming school activities?

Most children are fascinated by science because it is visual and fun. You don't need to have special scientific knowledge to help your child discover, explore, and develop their imagination. Below are some tips and activities you can do with your child at home.

Season

Science explores the world around us. For example, in autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees and fall to the ground, you can use this beautiful period to discuss the different seasons. Who among us does not like to collect colourful leaves and lie in their fluffy piles, tossing the rings and enjoying the process?!

• Ask the child to collect a variety of leaves, and then sort them by shape. Are they all the same? How are they different? How are they similar? Are they all the same color? Is it the same size?
• While your child is having fun sorting and describing what he finds, you can tell him that there are four seasons - fall, winter, spring and summer. Talk about the changes that occur in nature: in winter it is usually cold, in summer it is warm and we can swim in water bodies, in spring there is a lot of rain, it is the time when many plants bloom...

Living and non-living

Science divides the world into living and non-living things.

• Ask the child to collect three living and three inanimate objects in the park.
• Your child may not immediately understand the difference between living and non-living things. You can tell her some characteristics of living things - growth, movement, need for air, water and food, reproduction. What about speech and breathing? It may seem that they are necessary for life, but are they? Think about it together.
• Ask the child questions about the surrounding things. Is a stone a living thing? And river pebbles? And sea shells? Flower pots? Brick? And a pet?
• Reward the child for effort in collecting material. Help her correctly divide objects into the categories of "living" and "inanimate". Be careful: the child may find insects or spiders, so sometimes it is worth limiting the list of materials allowed for research.

Categorization and classification

Science is built on the study of the world based on classification.

• Ask your child to help you sort the foods you bought at the store by colour, size, shape, or weight. Turn this activity into a fun game and discuss how you can describe the objects in different ways depending on the category you choose. Objects of the same weight may differ in colour, size, or shape. Objects of the same size may have different shapes or weights.

• Ask the child to collect five soft or five hard objects. Let her use all her senses in the search process: sight, hearing and touch - and with their help determine whether these objects are soft or hard. Then let the child sort the found objects by size, colour or weight. Talk to her about how objects of the same group - hard or soft - can be classified into different categories. Then help your child draw the objects they found according to how they "classified" them.

‹Measurement

Science is based on careful and precise measurements.

• Designate a place in your home where your child will be allowed to litter as much as they want.
• Have her use sand, rice, pebbles, sugar, water, whatever to measure out certain amounts of different materials into different shaped containers.
• Together, observe how the same amount of material is perceived differently when we change its shapes and sizes. This activity develops the child's mathematical skills.

Observation

Science is based on observation of phenomena and objects and assumptions about what is happening. When a child waits for the end of observations, sometimes quite a long time, it develops his patience.

• Ask the child to sit quietly, look around, listen and observe the place where he is.

• Talk about different objects that you can see and hear. Does the child hear the singing of different birds? Does she notice different trees, leaves or plants? Are tree trunks or leaves similar to each other?
• You can even hold a light competition in which the whole family will participate, and award a prize to the person who hears and sees the most objects and phenomena.
• The child can write down his discoveries and come up with a story about the environment of his neighborhood based on his own observations.