First Science at Home

Your child asks why the sky is blue, where the rain goes, why the moon changes shape. And you freeze, because you are not quite sure, and you do not want to get it wrong.

Most parents feel shaky about science. We half-remember the water cycle, we are fuzzy on why the seasons change, and we dread the questions we cannot answer. This book hands you a better way, and it starts with a freeing idea: at this age, science is not about knowing facts. It is about finding things out.

Your six- or seven-year-old is already a scientist. They wonder, they guess, they test, they ask "why" a hundred times a day. Your job is not to be a walking encyclopedia. It is to refresh a few core ideas for yourself, and then explore them with your child, with simple words and simple things to try.

Emily Hartwell, mother of six and a careful reader of the research, follows one friendly pattern in every chapter. First she refreshes the science for you, in plain language, including the things people commonly get wrong. Then she shows you how to coach it, with a safe experiment or a nature walk built from things you already own.

Inside this book:

• What science really is, and the simple Wonder, Guess, Try loop your child can use on anything
• Nature, made hands-on: living and nonliving, plants, animals, life cycles, and backyard mini-beasts
• Weather and the sky: the water cycle, clouds and storms, wind, and why we have day, night, and seasons
• Safe kitchen experiments: states of matter, dissolving and fizzing, sink or float, forces and magnets, light and shadows
• The common ideas kids get wrong, and how to gently set them right
• A safe, simple activity at the end of every chapter, built from household things