DS (5) would like to "do maths" and "do science"

[BertieBotts]

Can you give me some ideas? We are not home educating but we live in Germany and he is still in kindergarten so no formal education yet. He won't start school for another year and a half.

He can recognise all one and two digit numbers and add and subtract small numbers (e.g. 2+3 is fine but 3+5 stumps him a little bit, and anything involving adding more numbers than he has fingers is incomprehensible)

I don't really know what sort of thing to do with him? Looking up online just brings ideas like number recognition which he's well past, and cooking/baking, which we do anyway although we don't have scales at the moment. A question came up on a game he was playing about percentages, he can see that 15% of an enemy's total health is a big chunk when they have full health (this is just a doctor who puzzle game, not a violent game!) but I was trying to explain to him about it being a small portion of their health when they only have a little bit left and he didn't understand. Are percentages too complicated, or fractions? If so, what kind of building blocks do they need to understand those kind of concepts - division and multiplication perhaps - where would I start with those?

Science I suspect he means "add things to other things to see what happens" and we've done the bicarb and vinegar one, anything else good?

[PirateJones]

Science I suspect he means "add things to other things to see what happens" and we've done the bicarb and vinegar one, anything else good?

Make silly putty

Put a rose in ink to change its colour.

See how long it takes for an apple / orange / banana to decompose in the garden.

Separate the colours from “black ink” by colouring strips of card in and leaving it in a cup over night, the colours will travel up the card.

Find the best material to wrap a cup in and keep it warm the longest.

You can make a boat out of piece of plastic bottle then use a blob of washing up liquid to power it across the bath tub.

secret codes with Lemon Juice Invisible Ink

Making a compass (bowl of water, sewing needle a magnet and cork.), then finding something in the house hidden with a simple map.

[PirateJones]

Are percentages too complicated, or fractions? If so, what kind of building blocks do they need to understand those kind of concepts - division and multiplication perhaps - where would I start with those?

I’d use a cake and cutting cake to show simple percentages.

Division is sharing an amount between people, so 10 sweets shared between 2 people is 5 each. (or Lego bricks, because they are plentiful and real things that can be physically divided up)

once he has that I would probably try to show that the 10 sweet are 100% of the sweets, and 5 is 50 percent, half of the sweets and so on.

[BertieBotts]

Ooh brilliant, thanks for these :) I remember doing the ink one at school, he'll like that! (Or maybe I will )

How does the washing up liquid power the boat?

[PirateJones]

How does the washing up liquid power the boat?

I believe (but could be wrong without checking) it breaks down the molecules in the surrounding water and moves the boat along with surface tension.

[PirateJones]

here you go www.csiro.au/Portals/Education/Programs/Do-it-yourself-science/Physical-sciences-activities/soap-boat-activity.aspx

[BertieBotts]

Oh, wow! So you smear it over the bottom?

[BertieBotts]

I've just googled it and found a great site. Thanks for the idea :)

www.planet-science.com/categories/experiments/messy/2011/02/power-a-boat-with-soap.aspx

[bochead]

Take a look at amblesideonline.org. This is where I started with DS as he was learning nothing in school at the time. Can't be a bad approach as he's now working on secondary science at 9.

This site also has a lovely number of age-appropriate free resources:-
www.naturedetectives.org.uk/

At this age science is all about learning to observe & reflect on the world around you.

cimt.org has the full UK NC maths curriculum + lesson plans and is a good place to start for free maths ideas.

[PirateJones]

That site is great, thanks for the link.

[ShellingtonsSister]

www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Science-Things-Usborne-Activities/dp/1409539008?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

We like this book.

[snappybadger]

For maths you could check out MEP www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/ it's free (although you can pay for workbooks to avoid having to print them all out) and starts from reception age.

[BertieBotts]

That looks good snappy :)