Summer is a great time for children to learn in fun ways. And STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities are a great way to do it! Check out this list of activities that you can do at home!
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Building Challenges
4-H STEM Lab: This site has directions to complete a variety of STEM projects. What I love: grade levels, time to complete projects AND cleanliness of the project are given. Can I tell you how much I love this last item? Instructions are also clearly written. At time of writing, there are 11 projects, mostly in the areas of physics and engineering.
Science Buddies: This site also has directions to complete STEM projects. While it has many more projects than the 4-H site, the layout is not as user friendly and most projects are for 6th-8th grade. If you have kids in this grade range, it is worth checking out.
Online Unit Studies from the Techie Homeschool Mom: Their Famous Inventors course offers great STEM resources for the summer. There are 10 inventors from Archimedes to Steve Jobs. For each inventor, there is information about the person, his inventions and then a project to complete such as making an Archimedes screw or a desktop printing press.
Explore Simple Machines: Simple machines are super fun to learn about and this book gives great explanations and simple projects to complete. Joseph’s Machines videos will provide great inspiration for your children to build, too!
Lego Building Challenges: If your children love to build with Legos, then check out some of these building challenges to stretch their minds. There is even a 30 day calendar of challenges you can download and hang up this summer for when your children say “I am bored!”
Nature Studies
Getting out and exploring nature is a great way to spend your summer. This can be as simple as going for a hike and writing in a nature journal about what you find. Our post 7 Reasons to Start a Homeschool Hiking Goal has a FREE Hiking Journal to get you started.
Or you may want to do something a bit more formal like use some of the lessons from Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study.
Ant Farm: Our boys had great fun with his ant farm and it is a great way to observe nature up close on a daily basis.
Experiments
ScienceFun.org: This site has over 50 science experiments that children can do at home. Instructions are fairly simple and videos are included for many of the projects.
Chemistry Experiments: This site has 8 well-explained experiments specific to chemistry.
Physics Experiments: There are many physics activities listed above in Building Challenges section, but here is one more list specific to younger children.
More Experiments: This post has 50 experiments you can do with household items.
Go Science Girls: There 100 experiments here you can make at home and/or use for a science fair project.
STEM Toys
Sometimes it is easiest to purchase a few STEM toys and have them available to your children. Here are a few to get you started:
Snap Circuits: These are very popular at our house and are a great way for children to explore electronic circuits.
Roller Coaster Challenge: This is also popular at our house and provides children with 40 different building challenges.
Physics Laws: This building kit teaches about a variety of laws of physics.
STEM Field Trips
Field trips are a fun way to learn about a variety of topics and many places teach about STEM topics. You could visit a science museum, aquarium, nature museum, zoo, power company, or transportation museum just to name a few! For ideas on how to plan a field trip, check out How to Plan a Family Field Trip.
What other STEM activities have you found? Share below!
