One of the main reasons I promote STEM so much is to keep home-school families from thinking their kiddos are somehow missing out from a valid science experience. When I taught in private or public schools, I made it my mission to provide as many labs and hands-on activities as possible. When I started to work with Co-ops, I continued to set a minimum of 30 labs per course, with a goal of 50 activities. Yes, we often do two or three hands-on activities or labs per class. Even when I lecture, I still have at least one mini-lab.
Like you, I have heard a great deal of criticism about home-school math and science. I am trying to deflect some of the criticism about science instruction. (Private school teachers get a lot of disparaging remarks about math and science, too.) Ask families with children in public or private schools to tell you how many labs they do in their science classes. You may be surprised. As home-schoolers, we do have to over-deliver.
My mission with this blog is to both encourage you to do science and to find affordable labs and activities. I do my best to locate labs which use household chemicals. However HST usually has specialty chemicals for some of the labs I cite in blog posts. Do as many labs or hands-on activities as you can stomach! Document your efforts. Keep records! Write formal lab reports. Keep a portfolio for your transcript. Let’s combat this misconception that we are somehow short changing our kiddos in science.
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