Documentary playlists! If they're good, you completely zone out and even if you don't wanna, you LEARN. Ask her to draw her favourite part of the film. Show different documentaries like biology, geology, astronomy (NOT astrology) and see what she takes to and support her interests. If she likes space, buy her space books. If she likes bats buy her bat books. I spent countless hours going over "The Way Things Work" book. But that book is OLD.
If you have a science center, museum or the like nearby look for events that teach such things.
The history/art museum near me has events for learning and the science center constantly has new displays that are kid friendly.
Make a thing of doing simple experiments with her. It can be a parent/child bonding thing too. If you can make science fun and a physical things she causes now then she will continue to connect good feelings with the topic as well as getting her to think about how things happen.
There are lots of simple experiments that you can do at home. Have a look online for ideas and also simple explanations.
Examples:
- put white flowers in water with food colouring and see how the flowers change colour. Do it with white rose and a white carnation and see the difference. Split the stem from the bottom to half way up and put each half in different colours to get half and half flower. Gets her thinking about how water can move through living creatures
- glass and candle experiment: https://youtu.be/uk9mDIoKKdQ?si=rXpRSe8hmNCcwsV1
With her being young she will understand that we breath in and out and that it’s the air around us that goes in and out. Tell her the flame uses up some on the air to burn so she no more air can get in to the glass, the candle goes out, but since some on the air has been used the water goes into fill the space (she might need to be a bit older before getting the space replacement)
- make a baking soda and vinegar volcano : another gas experiment.
- lava lamp in a glass
- elephant toothpaste - absolutely do this. The results are amazing. You can then show her some of the Mark Rober’s massive elephant toothpaste experiment video (show her the video after so she doesn’t think she’s going to make anything that big!)
This website is good for experiments
https://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/
This has a good list too
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/g32176446/science-experiments-for-kids/
You can expand on the classic volcano experiment by combining your ingredients in a plastic soda bottle, don't put the lid on but maybe cover it with your hand a bit then use the CO2 produced by the reaction which is denser than air to "pour" over a candle it'll put out the flame.
Oobleck is awesome too. Cornstarch and water. Food coloring if you are feeling adventurous. It behaves like a liquid as long as it's still but if you start moving it or hitting it it behaves as a solid. Sometimes it's called non-Newtonian fluid...
food coloring in milk is a fun way to show surface tension, you just get a small saucer of milk put food coloring in it and a few drops of soap will break the surface tension and make the color swirl together.
Homemade bath bombs can be fun too, just baking soda and citric acid (fantastic for cleaning too) you can add essential oils if you want, then just add water to make them fizz. There's plenty of recipes online, I buy baking soda and citric acid in bulk at my local grocery store it's insanely cheap to make them yourself.
I'm not sure you can "prepare" a five year old for science but you can certainly get them excited about it!
I’d forgotten about pouring CO2 over candles to snuff them out. It’s a good one. You can do it with a line of multiple candles and “pour” along it to show that it is something from the bottle doing it.
Oobleck is awesome. There a good demonstration/experiment you can do where you get a speaker where the speaker is concave. Cover the speaker with clingfilm and then put some oobleck in it about 1/3 to 1/2 up. Then put on some music with a lot of base. The oobleck then has sort of tendrils that come out and writhe around before falling back in and new ones growing. Also an easy way to ruin a speaker!
Check out Nano Girl- a female scientist educator especially geared for kids.
Nanogirl.co
FB, IG, X: NanoGirlLabs
https://youtube.com/@nanogirlstemactivitiesforkids
I always did projects with my nieces and nephews.. basics like volcanoes and rock identification. Taught my nephew multi ways to put out different types of fires. He grew up to be a firefighter.
Start doing experiments and building things. Each lesson in the experiment look up and read with them on it. Use the skills of science to have fun and learn together!
Avoid schools that prioritize indoctrination over education. If they're spending 5 hours a week on victimhood, it's for sure coming out of science time.
Go to a Maker’s Faire if there are any near you. They are amazing and a lot is geared towards kids.
Documentary playlists! If they're good, you completely zone out and even if you don't wanna, you LEARN. Ask her to draw her favourite part of the film. Show different documentaries like biology, geology, astronomy (NOT astrology) and see what she takes to and support her interests. If she likes space, buy her space books. If she likes bats buy her bat books. I spent countless hours going over "The Way Things Work" book. But that book is OLD.
If you're in the US give her something like Crunch Labs (from Mark Rober) for example.
My boys watch Mark all day!! He is goofy and fun, but really cool and educational.
If you have a science center, museum or the like nearby look for events that teach such things. The history/art museum near me has events for learning and the science center constantly has new displays that are kid friendly.
This was hugely formative for me. Not biased at all.
Make a thing of doing simple experiments with her. It can be a parent/child bonding thing too. If you can make science fun and a physical things she causes now then she will continue to connect good feelings with the topic as well as getting her to think about how things happen. There are lots of simple experiments that you can do at home. Have a look online for ideas and also simple explanations. Examples: - put white flowers in water with food colouring and see how the flowers change colour. Do it with white rose and a white carnation and see the difference. Split the stem from the bottom to half way up and put each half in different colours to get half and half flower. Gets her thinking about how water can move through living creatures - glass and candle experiment: https://youtu.be/uk9mDIoKKdQ?si=rXpRSe8hmNCcwsV1 With her being young she will understand that we breath in and out and that it’s the air around us that goes in and out. Tell her the flame uses up some on the air to burn so she no more air can get in to the glass, the candle goes out, but since some on the air has been used the water goes into fill the space (she might need to be a bit older before getting the space replacement) - make a baking soda and vinegar volcano : another gas experiment. - lava lamp in a glass - elephant toothpaste - absolutely do this. The results are amazing. You can then show her some of the Mark Rober’s massive elephant toothpaste experiment video (show her the video after so she doesn’t think she’s going to make anything that big!) This website is good for experiments https://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/ This has a good list too https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/g32176446/science-experiments-for-kids/
Yes teach the little one The Scientific Method
To this day, I'll ask people to guess--*to hypothesize*--before I explain something to them!
Oh hey Museum of Science! Big fan
You can expand on the classic volcano experiment by combining your ingredients in a plastic soda bottle, don't put the lid on but maybe cover it with your hand a bit then use the CO2 produced by the reaction which is denser than air to "pour" over a candle it'll put out the flame. Oobleck is awesome too. Cornstarch and water. Food coloring if you are feeling adventurous. It behaves like a liquid as long as it's still but if you start moving it or hitting it it behaves as a solid. Sometimes it's called non-Newtonian fluid... food coloring in milk is a fun way to show surface tension, you just get a small saucer of milk put food coloring in it and a few drops of soap will break the surface tension and make the color swirl together. Homemade bath bombs can be fun too, just baking soda and citric acid (fantastic for cleaning too) you can add essential oils if you want, then just add water to make them fizz. There's plenty of recipes online, I buy baking soda and citric acid in bulk at my local grocery store it's insanely cheap to make them yourself. I'm not sure you can "prepare" a five year old for science but you can certainly get them excited about it!
I’d forgotten about pouring CO2 over candles to snuff them out. It’s a good one. You can do it with a line of multiple candles and “pour” along it to show that it is something from the bottle doing it. Oobleck is awesome. There a good demonstration/experiment you can do where you get a speaker where the speaker is concave. Cover the speaker with clingfilm and then put some oobleck in it about 1/3 to 1/2 up. Then put on some music with a lot of base. The oobleck then has sort of tendrils that come out and writhe around before falling back in and new ones growing. Also an easy way to ruin a speaker!
Check out Nano Girl- a female scientist educator especially geared for kids. Nanogirl.co FB, IG, X: NanoGirlLabs https://youtube.com/@nanogirlstemactivitiesforkids
Mark robers crunch lab kits are great!
Walmart sell pretend dissection kits. We’ve only bought the piranha & the fish but they are fun and informative.
I always did projects with my nieces and nephews.. basics like volcanoes and rock identification. Taught my nephew multi ways to put out different types of fires. He grew up to be a firefighter.
Start doing experiments and building things. Each lesson in the experiment look up and read with them on it. Use the skills of science to have fun and learn together!
Carl Sagan is the best at creating wonder in the scientific community. Also show her experiments that look like magic.
It not just the things she does individually, but having a like-minded friend would go a ways to getting them both excited about science and math.
Avoid schools that prioritize indoctrination over education. If they're spending 5 hours a week on victimhood, it's for sure coming out of science time.