Increasing Your Child's Science Vocabulary

One of the major goals that I have this year for homeschooling is to significantly increase my child's vocabulary. We talk and read a lot and she is whipping through literature books like crazy, but to increase her science vocabulary, I bought these books.

Each book touches on a different subject and presents the new terminology in an exciting way: kids actually learn things that they are interested in!

The first book that we began reading was "Learning About Trees" and in our reading of the book, I made several projects to correspond with the new vocabulary words. 

For example, when we touched on the parts of the tree, we used construction paper to "build" trees on the living room wall. The result was a forest of different trees taped on the wall for weeks. And the best part was that we started the project in the fall with all colored leaves. As it is got closer to winter, we began removing the leaves, which led to a conversation about seasons and a tree's life cycle, all of which worked well with the vocab book.

You should give it a try! If your child is an interactive learner like my child is, then using these vocabuary books to launch science projects will make learning super fun for both kids and parents. 

**You don't have to be homeschooling your child to use these books. Kids want to learn with their parents after school too. Make learning projects a fun hobby for you and your kids.

Here are some other ideas to use with these books:

For Insects:

• You can create clay bugs with all of the correct body parts. Bake them, paint them, and your kids will have new toys to play with.
• You can go on a bug hunt during the spring when the ladybugs surface.

For Animals:

• Using the four seasons, create cut outs of an animal like the rabbit or the fox that changes fur colors.
• Make an animal zoo with twigs, rocks, and other outdoor materials.

For Plants:

• Plant different plants throughout the year, culminating in a vegetable garden in the summer.

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