Homeschooling the Creative Child: Science and Social Studies

by Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger

06 Jun 2007 08:02 AM

In my first post on Homeschooling the creative child I talked about how my high school chemistry teacher helped me tremendously by making Chemistry three dimensional for me and allowing me to draw pictures all over my test paper. He would often see the panic on my face at test time and say "just draw it... if you can draw it, then I know you know it." Needless to say, he was one of my favorite teachers out of the many I had.

Here are some tips you can use to homeschool your creative child science and social studies:

Dioramas: When studying the environment, be it rainforests, or the water cycle, have the children make three-dimensional dioramas. The process of creating a beautiful science model will also help to imbed otherwise boring facts into their brains. Your children can also create dioramas of battles, and the homes and worlds of historic figures.

Painting: You can have your child paint pictures of a realistic heart, skull, or imagine a scene from history and paint it. Like Dioramas, the act of painting will help cement the knowledge into their minds.

Labs: Creative children are tactile and can only absorb science by doing it. Purchase lab kits and keep experiments going in your home. When it is time for chemistry, you may want to find somewhere outside the home for your child to work! You may also want to supervision of an experienced chemist.

Field Trips: Take your children to science and history museums. Large exhibits like "Bodies" and the "Titanic" exhibits we went to this year taught us a wealth of knowledge in just a few hours. My kids are still spouting the facts months later. In addition, make it a point to stop by smaller museum exhibits and ask for a tour. We learned all about Anesthesia at the Crawford Long museum and about World Wars I and II at local exhibits where the proctors were happy to answer all of our questions.

Television and movies: When all else fails, I find that watching the Science and History Channel, and renting movies on historic events, helps he child to learn facts and events much better than reading about it in the book. After watching the film, just be sure to discuss and historic discrepancies due to creative license.

Related posts:

Homeschooling the Creative Child: Do You Have One?

Tips for Homeschooling the Creative Child: Math

Homeschooling the Creative Child: Language Arts

*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.

*Want to know more about homeschooling? Start with the 2006 homeschool blog in review!

* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?

Learn more about Andrea Hermitt

Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger