Science Sites for Kids

On the linked webpage, you can find a great list of science sites for young learners. The website is fairly old, so some of the sites may have moved or been erased by link rot, but the majority are still working. You can also check out the main website for more collections of websites ranging in topic from dinosaurs, history, math, and space to comics, coloring, and crafts.

More Interactives

You can browse a list of more than 300 educational interactives right here. Sort by grade level and/or subject to find the one that's just right for what you're looking to learn today.

Cloud Creatures, Beach Excursions, and Backyard Gardening: More Ideas for Parents of Young Children

When I was young, I had the good fortune of living five minutes from the nearest shore. That shore just happened to be a narrow bay fed by the Atlantic Ocean, but at the age of four, I thought it was a sea. In the warmer months, my mother used to take me down to the bay with a shovel and some sturdy baggies. I would hop over the rocks and try to pet the ducks while my mom pointed out the prettiest seashells and the roundest rocks. After abandoning my quest to befriend the local wildlife, each object would be subject to my careful inspection. Only the best pebbles and the most awe-inspiring shells would go into the baggie. As I gracelessly toddled around on the sandy beach, my mom would explain how the ocean churned the rocks over many hundreds or even thousands of years to make them smooth, how sand was formed by waves crashing against stone and how our beach had formed when those particles from far-away places washed up upon the land. She told me about some of the different creatures living in the bay, and still other creatures who were dependent on those animals. She also explained to me that the bay was not, in fact, an ocean, but it took a couple of years (and a visit to an actual ocean) for that to fully sink in.

Trips to the beach can be a great learning experience for young children. Just make sure to research the beach beforehand, as many of today's beaches contain contaminants such as oil or industrial pollutants, glass shards that can be dangerous to little hands, or biting/stinging native creatures that should not be ventured near. It should also be noted that beaches pose a drowning hazard if children stray too close to the water and are too young or unable to swim, or if they get caught in an offshore rip current.

If you live further inland, or the weather does not permit a beach excursion, you might want to consider taking the fun to your own backyard. Arm your little one with a shovel and a bucket and allow them to do a little bit of digging in a designated area. You should carefully supervise this activity, making sure to point out which little critters to leave alone and which bugs are okay to play with. If your child finds any rocks under the ground, ask them if they can guess how they got there. You can also have a discussion about gardening. Talk to your child about the importance of respecting and protecting planets. Tell them about the importance of fertilizer, and explain to them how plants photosynthesize energy from the sun. You might even want to start a small compost pile or have your child help you start a flower, vegetable, or herb garden.

If none of the above are an option for you and your child, go for the classics. Wait until a partially cloudy or mostly sunny day, lay out an old blanket in an open space, and lie down to watch the clouds together. Encourage your child to see shapes in the clouds, and to make up stories about them. You might even want to turn this into a back and forth exchange, where you start the story, your child continues it for a sentence, and then you do the same. This'll probably result in a bit of giggling all around. If you want, you can also discuss how clouds form, and talk about how weather influences our daily lives.

These suggestions are mainly geared towards parents of younger children, but they can all be modified to become a learning and bonding experience for a guardian and a child of any age.

Nature Walks

Talking nature walks can be a great way to teach young children about their environment and community. When I was little, I used to go out with a tiny hand basket to collect interesting leaves, rocks, stray flowers, and twigs I found on the way. My mother and I would keep a look out for colorful birds and listen for their songs, and Mom would point out trees in their various phases of budding, flowering, and turning colors in the autumn. She'd tell me about the grass and the trees and the sky and the clouds and how it all came together to work as one sustainable ecosystem. Under her loving supervision, I learned about how clouds made rain and how the trees and plants around me used that water along with sunlight to make energy for themselves. She showed me where the mosses and lichens fit into that world of green, and together we watched the coming and goings of the insects and spiders that made a home for themselves on our block. One day each week for an entire year, we walked around the corner to the tree where the ladybugs came to mate and lay their eggs, and once we spotted the first egg, we came back every day to see if we could catch them hatching into larvae.

I still remember the summer a rather hardy spider spun a web in the space between a small stone pillar and a neighbor's picket fence. It's been a great many years since I last saw that spider, and I know that in all likelihood she's long since perished, but some part of me wants to believe that she's still out there, spinning spindly little webs in small, dark places.

I also remember the day we found a half-eaten cupcake about half a block from our house. It was crawling with ants, and my three-year-old self was completely and utterly captivated. I could hardly believe that such tiny creatures could disassemble a piece of food many hundreds of times larger than themselves. Somehow, they managed it, and when we went back a few hours later at my insistence, all that was left of the abandoned treat was a stained wrapper and a dozen straggler ants who hadn't realized the feast was over.

As I grew older, we still went on walks together in the gentler months of the year. Occasionally we found a pinecone or some other such treasure. We may have even borrowed a fig or two from the tree a few blocks north of here, but nothing has ever been conclusively proven on that matter.

Nowadays, those nature walks are some of my best childhood memories. My mom could have sat me down with some dusty old book about trees or handed me the TV remote, but she didn't. Instead, she chose to bundle me up in my coziest sweater and arm me with a tiny hand basket so we could discover the splendor of the natural world together, as a family.