The grocery list has looked a bit strange the past few weeks. I am not seeing the usual items like milk, cereal, and cucumbers. Rather, I am noticing atypical items such as AA batteries, paper clips, and copper wire. Home school has definitely changed my shopping habits!
My child loves anything hands-on when we are studying science. I often hear, “what activity are we doing today?” But planning science investigations takes a considerable amount of time and often requires a hunt for random supplies … things that I swear we have in the house yet I can never find. White vinegar? I thought we had some in the basement. Incandescent light bulb? Hmm, I guess we really did replace the traditional bulbs with LED ones. Colored cellophane? I thought I saw that in the attic. But nothing was where I thought it was.
So, I started making a weekly “grocery list” of science supplies for the activities and experiments included in our lesson plan. This strategy worked for a while. But things completely fell apart this week. You can’t exactly do an experiment on electromagnets if you don’t have magnets. I had to find another way to prepare for science class.
Thankfully, there are many other parents that have been home schooling much longer than I have. A quick internet search yielded everything from tricks for foraging home science supplies to links to companies selling pricey science kits. I felt like I was shopping for groceries, where some sites are all about growing your own food and other sites are promoting fancy meal delivery services. I just wanted someone to recommend what I should keep on hand in my pantry. I found such a list at Elemental Science – “100 Useful items for a science supply cabinet.” Now I only have to do one big shopping trip and I will be ready for whatever our science lessons bring next. Pfew!