My thoughts on Science for next year

I just had a conversation with a friend about science. It was interesting. I was telling her how I'm currently reading about chemistry because next year I'll be teaching it to my children. As we talked, I realized how much I don't enjoy science. Do my kids feel the same way? It's a question I'm pondering. I don't want them to not enjoy science. Science is really wonderful and awe-inspiring when you look at it with the correct point of view. Is my reluctance to teach it rubbing off on my kids? Is my attitude effecting their ability to enjoy a subject? Here's what I think.

I'm the teacher. I'm the adult. I set the tone. Unfortunately, in science, it's been a struggle for me to enjoy it because I feel as though I've never really understood it. I had teachers who "did their job" but didn't inspire a curiosity an adventurous spirit. It was about the right and wrong answer not about the process. Science needs to be about the process, not necessarily the right and wrong. How many experiments throughout history have failed and other things discovered: penicillian, gravity, the solar system revovling around the sun, electricity. What if they all just looked for the right anwer and everything else was considered a failure?

I don't want that for my kids. I want to inspire them. I want to challenge them. I want them to have, dare I say it?, fun with science. Here's a contingency plan I've been processing on how we'll get there:

1. More nature journaling. We currently nature journal once a week on Friday. We enjoy it. It's fun for us,
but, we don't take the time to do it the rest of the week. I want to add at least one more day. I want to
incorporate art and poetry into our journals as well to make them more interesting and fun. We used to do
that, and I'm not sure why we stopped, but, we will start again.

2. More experimentation. I'm still figuring all of this out. But, since we're studying chemistry, there's so much
we can do. Making ice cream is chemistry (there's an excuse!). I'm looking at books that introduce fun
experiments like that.

3. Read more biographies. Sometimes scientists seem so above us. We can never attain to their stratosphere
of knowledge and know-how. It helps to see them as regular people trying to solve regular problems. I'm
looking forward to finding out more about their lives, who they really were. It'll inspire my kids to see that
they are people just like us.

4. Gardening. We have a walled-in back garden at our house and I brought some seeds from the US. I plan on
learning about composting and growing things in our backyard. I also want to build a trellis for grapes and
climbing roses. This should be a great opportunity to learn about composting, seeds, and how things grow.
Not to mention, it will make our backyard beautiful!

For nature journaling, I already have a great resource. It's called Keeping A Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth. I love the way it breaks things down into seasons with really great pointers on making your nature journal great. My kids have seen it and already shown an interest in it.

So, there's my ramble on Science! When I come up with a more concrete plan, I will be sure to post it here!