I’ve been trying to connect with other homeschooling families in our area. The people who are active on the local homeschool listserv seem to have older kids. We’ve been to a few events/get togethers, but our kids are by far the youngest.
With many of the boys’ friends starting kindergarden last fall, I really wanted them to get to know some other homeschooling kids. I want them to know there are other kids doing something similar to what we are doing.
When I couldn’t find those people, I decided to start a science/natural history class. We’ve only met once, but the plan is to meet once a month, somewhere outside, to explore and learn a little.
Homeschool Snow Science
I used the book The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder (buy now on Amazon) for inspiration. I’ll list the tools we used below.
Our first class was snow science. We dug a little snow pit (it would have been better if there was more snow), we looked at the layers, took temperature readings and tried to determine whether the snow was warmer near the top or closer to the ground. We tried to understand the history of the snow by looking at how hard/soft/icy the different snow layers were. There was a scavenger hunt, a couple other experiments, and a whole lot of running around in the snow. With three six-year-old boys, a nine-year old boy, four-year-old Finn and one little girl, it was a whole lot of crazy fun.
Hannah, AB’s mom and my friend, took some beautiful photos. Since I don’t really know the other parents, yet, I’m not posting too many photos of their kids, but know that Hannah took some really nice ones.
Tools for Homeschool Snow Science
Here are all the tools you need for your own snow science experiments. Some of these you probably have already. Click through to buy on Amazon the ones you still need.
This book provides lots of information and inspiration for running your own science experiments. Buy here.
A short-handled or telescoping shovel is ideal for digging a snow pit. Buy here.
This article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You will never pay more when buying a product through our link. And we only recommend products that we truly love! Thank you! I appreciate your support!
Not having much exposure to snow, I had no idea there was so much to learn about it. Cool! And good work putting a science class together for the kiddos.
What a great post and fun activity! Happy Mid-winter!
@Debi- So much to learn about the natural world, isn’t there? Another month or so and I’ll wish we were doing sand studies!
@Suz- Thanks! And happy mid-winter to you!!