Start Science Camp when they are young! I started with Elementary Science Camp - As a homeschool mom, remembering my earliest experiences with Science, I wanted Science to be different. I had bigger plans. I pulled out my Bob Jones Science Curriculum and I saw that there were experiments EVERY lesson. Woo Hoo! At this point, I had 3 little children, and my husband was starting his own law practice. I opted to help him get his files set up and organized over preparing for Science. So, what happened? I read the first Science lesson with my son and we read about the experiment, while the little ones were napping. He yawned and asked if we could do the experiment, and I told him “no” that I needed to get to work helping daddy and then get dinner going. There was no way I could pull out that mess, do it and then clean it up, and get everything else done, during their nap time. This pattern continued the entire month of September, and by December we just stopped reading the lessons in the textbook.
I was wracked with guilt. Here I had this curious little boy who really wanted to do Science and I had squelched him. But, I just couldn’t see it getting done when I already had my plate full. Making and cleaning up one more mess just didn’t seem like something I could add. I continued to let it bug me, all year long.
Finally, we finished our school year. I could mark that we completed each book, except for Science. I NEEDED to come up with a solution. And one day I did. It was June. I looked at the book and listed what I would need for each Science Experiment and then I looked at the Teacher’s Manual and listed all of the additional items I needed for experiments to reinforce the Scientific principles. There were 12 chapters in the book. Those elementary Science books aren’t very thick and I marked my calendar for 3 weeks in July where we would start Science Camp. I announced to the kids that we were going to do Science Camp for 3 weeks. They were pretty excited. We had baseball camp, tennis camp, Vacation Bible School and now mom was going to be doing Science Camp. Sounded great to them!
I spent the next couple of weeks gathering all of the supplies I needed, and I put them in paper bags. The bags were labeled Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and so forth. I stapled a list of what was needed for each Chapter and as I conducted a large scavenger hunt, I’d cross things off. Of course, I needed to wait to get carnations and cabbage and those kinds of things until the week of, but I could put magnifying glasses, thread, needles, empty milk cartons, toilet paper rolls and those kinds of goods right into the appropriate bags. Another thing, as I contemplated whether or not I wanted to buy the plastic beaker versus the glass beaker (First grade science needed 3), I ended up buying the plastic, because I was working with little kids. Rookie mistake. By second grade Science Camp, I purchased glass beakers or glass graduated cylinders because I realized that I was working towards a bigger goal than just Science Camps and plastic beakers would not hold up over a Bunsen burner.
On the Sunday night before Science Camp started, I told my children that we were going to start Science Camp at 9 am and that we would finish at Noon. It was my experience that the kids in the neighborhood, during summer break, slept in, watched cartoons all morning and didn’t knock on the door until after lunch. I figured that if we couldn’t finished a chapter in 3 hours, we’d just finish it the next day. This was the time that my children first questioned whether or not this was a “camp” or a “school day”.
Monday morning comes, and I start with an experiment that is recommended in the Teacher’s Manual. Next we reread that Lesson that we had started the previous September. Only this time we DO the experiment. The kids are hooked! They fill out their notebook, complete their drawings and observations and we easily finish the 3 to 4 lessons that are in each Chapter, within the 3 hours. I clean up the mess, and get lunch started. We do this the first week. Come Saturday morning, they are asking if they can do another Chapter. I tell them “no”.
We stick to the 12 work days, and we are done with the curriculum! Day 13 comes, and everyone is ready for Science Camp. I tell them no more Science Camp until next summer. They are disappointed and I feel like I have just pulled off the biggest coup!
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