6 Ways to Boost Your Child’s Interest in Science

Do you find your kid not wanting to do his Science homework and much less want to read the textbook? Yet he is motivated to work on some of his other subjects.

It could be that he has grown to hate the subject from bad experience. If you have been forcing him it may be counterproductive, making him hate Science more.

There are many reasons why Science can put off a student. It is rarely due to the subject nature itself. More likely the reason lies in how the subject has been presented to him all this while.

Science is a subject of discovery. When taught properly, with hands on activity and discussions, it naturally appeals to the curious minds of children. Unfortunately, the reality of it in the class may not allow your child to experience Science this way. With all the constraints teachers face, many resort to what is practical, that is by explaining the concepts with just pictures and words.

To your child, Science becomes a very abstract subject where at times it just doesn’t make sense to him. To make matters worst, he is made to describe and explain the concepts in the exams. Just like learners of any age, he will naturally reject information that doesn’t make sense.

Rather than just let the shortcomings in the class be as it is, parents can put in the excitement back in Science. And they don’t have to be an expert or a Scientist to do this.

Here are some suggestions to ignite exploratory nature in your child:

1. Encourage discussions.
When your child asks questions about the environment and things around them, don’t be too quick to give answer or brush it off. Have a discussion. Ask them about what they think would be the likely reasons. Hear out what they have to say. Some answers may seem completely ridiculous, but keep in mind that with their limited knowledge, it actually makes complete sense to them. And we adults must respect that.

Explore ideas that they throw at you. You don’t have to have all the answers. Even scientists don’t know everything. What is important is to guide their explorations. Lead them to where the answers can be found. Maybe you can borrow a book that explains how a watch work. Who knows, you might learn something new yourself in the process. And it could be a perfect way to spend quality time with him.

2. Let them get dirty.
With the advent of so many anti-bacterial toiletries and their intensive advertising, no wonder today we are so afraid of germs despite knowing that these germs have always been around. Nowadays parents don’t like their children to get dirty, maybe for the same reasons.

But children naturally like to get their hands dirty and explore their world. They like to dismantle things just to have a look inside. Pull out a worm from the ground. Squeeze a fruit. Throw an egg and watch it break. Do all these just to experience the joy of discovering new things.

Why not go with it? If you have an old watch that doesn’t work anymore, or a cheap one that you don’t want anymore, get your kids to dismantle it and watch it work. And then, always, get into a discussion about it. Go to the park and let them grope around the shrubs for spiders. Get dirty in and with nature. Then have a good shower with an anti bacterial soap.

3. Creative writing.
If your child likes language, get them to make fictional stories about what they learnt in Science. If it is the water cycle, tell them to write the journey of a water droplet and encourage them to include emotions and conversations into their stories, just like a story book. This will actually help them remember the facts better because the mind remembers stories better than just a list of facts.

It adds an element of creativity and fun into learning Science. In fact, many memory techniques employ such creative technique to add fun to studying.

4. Build a portfolio.
A portfolio is a powerful way of making learning tangible. Get your child to collect all his works and ideas into a folder or paste it into an A3 sketchpad. Take photos of their experiments and include them into the portfolio.

With time, your child can see his portfolio grow as a testament to his learning journey. He cannot but feel proud of all the work he have done. This will help boost his morale and remind him of the exploratory nature in Science. Don’t be surprised if you find it difficult to throw them away after a while because it holds so much meaning and memories.

5. Have fun with mistakes.
When attempting experiments and hands on activities, there seems to be an expectation that we must get the correct results. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Actually in Science, there is no such thing as a failed experiment. Even if your child didn’t get the expected results, there is learning in what didn’t go right, and why. Remember Thomas Edison had to keep tweaking his experiments a thousand times before he got the light bulb perfect. Each experiment led him closer to the final working model.

Also remember that the experiments found in books for children are really the experiments done by scientists back in the olden days. Though it may seem childlike today, these experiments are the early stepping-stones of scientific and technological knowledge that we have today.

6. Be inquisitive yourself.
Yes, we are all living a busy life. In fact, we are so busy that we have long forgotten the joys of just being curious. Set aside a day or two for being curious with your child. Let them use their curiosity to guide you into their world.

We know what a clock does, but how many of us know how it works, or how the microwave heats up?

Why not explore that together with your kid as a home project?