Summer Science/Stem

I decided that I really wanted the kids to keep up on their school work so they were ready for the year ahead.

So I tried to make it fun with a Summer Schedule chart that had all our activities on it.
Which worked for a little while.
And really wasn't updated much but it did give me something to day when someone said "I'm bored." or when things were getting rowdy.
I looked at our schedule and just read off whatever it said for that time; reading, workbooks, outside play, building, crafting, ...
So most of the time that worked and I think we will give it another go next summer.

One item I wanted on the list was a period of time where we could work on a hands on science project, I widened it to stem so we could do many different things.
We would start with watching Bill Nye (I grew up watching him after school) or Magic School Bus then we would do an activity on what we learned.
At first everybody was REALLY excited and we ALL had a lot of fun. I found so many good ideas.
But our summer did get more busy and some days we forgot, and then Connor just got ... DONE.
And when he got done, Bella lost interest too and then Syd was left and willing but a little too young for most of them and it was especially hard to want to do it if they weren't all going to participate.

Some of our fun projects were:

Made the water cycle in ziploc bags and watched the water disappear throughout the day. 

Watched how rubbing a balloon could create static electricity.

Egg Drop vs. Gravity

Drawing our bodies and talking about where everything is inside them.

Created a sticky Spider Web with tape and talked about why and how they do that. 

Making Orange Soda (that tasted like YUCK) and talking about the different states of matter.

Went on a bug hunt.

Does light shine through this? Predictions and Experimenting with a flashlight. 

Guess whats Magnetic? We had to make predictions and then all experiment. 

Playing a food chain card game.

Playing a use your senses game, where they guessed what each thing was.

What temperature does Hot Chocolate dissolve?

Cooked Smores in a Solar Oven.

Blueberry Smoothie and talked about textures. 

Making a water tornado with water bottles. 

Made a pully.

Making the layers of the Earth. And then eating our cookie creations!

I think we did even more but these are the ones I can remember. 

I want to do even more next summer and hopefully keep the kids more engaged?!?

If anything it really kept me motivated to do a hands on activity with the kids everyday!