Periodic table, chemical equations etc for 8yo

[Cagliostro]

DS is autistic, possibly ADHD and home ed, he would be in year 4 but would generally be lower academic ability than that. However he recently picked up an amazing book about the periodic table and he is now obsessed, constantly telling us facts etc. I would really love to encourage this and from the way he talks about it I think he could potentially manage things like atomic structure and balancing equations etc. But that was most definitely not my strong point (I envisaged getting a tutor for secondary science when they are older, not sure either DC would manage that type of environment yet though) and beyond a couple of books and card games, which don’t really go that deeply, I’m not really sure what to use - he wouldn’t really be able to access secondary age books, as his reading comprehension isn’t great.

Any thoughts please? He’s eager to learn, and has already named the element he’s planning to discover as an adult :o

My dad got me a molecule-building set at that age. BBC Bitesize might be straightforward enough?

There's lots of really fun science videos on YouTube. Sci show is great, as is asap science. Show him this:

Check them first for language though as they are aimed at mainly adults.

With regard to balancing equations etc, there's lots of worksheets on teachit science, the pdfs are free. He might like some games like spelling words using the symbols for elements. E.g. LiON, BaNaNAs

These are excellent:
www.periodicvideos.com/index.htm

All crash courses are fab.

I would also recommend BBC Bitezise

*Bitesize

*chemistry

Yes, he might enjoy building molecules using molymods. There are student sets available on Amazon. I often give students pictures of molecules that they need to build, like the one in the picture.

There is a series of books "Horrible Science" from the same publishers as Horrible Histories. They may be in your local or school libraries.

Basher science book any use?

Yes, Basher books are great too.

playsciencegames.com/category/chemistry-games/

What about linking in with a local science club?

Also if he is interested in science in general, there are sister site of crash course for primary aged children. These are fab too.

www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids/playlists

www.education.com/worksheets/Periodic+table/
Free periodic table worksheets here. They are American and the Grade 5 ones are not that hard. Free to shield very singly but you have to pay off you want to download a whole set at once.

Free to download singly.

We have chemistry elements top trumps for DD aged 8, has the most common 50 or something.
And a tablet game from Toca Boca tocaboca.com/app/toca-lab-elements/
though depending on personality, that can be frustrating as you don't seem to know which element it is unless you can remember from the chart.

And, y'know, this

Oh wow these are all fab, thank you. Lots of great stuff to follow up there!

I hadn’t even thought of looking for actual science clubs!

Cordillera is the toca boca game good for older children then? We used to have loads of TB games when they were younger, but I’ve not redownloaded them or bought any more since getting the new iPad, as I recall they were more infant school type age - is this one a bit older do you think?

I think it's good for this age, it was too hard for DD at 6/7 but maybe that's because the elements themselves aren't explained. There is a trailer video on that link that shows the elements being experimented with, that's basically what you do in the game, test them and see how they react.

If he really wants to learn Chemistry properly, I would recommend Khan Academy course.(Though I assume you must know about Khan)
My ds 10 is learning Biology at the moment.

www.khanacademy.org/science

Oh thanks I have got the Khan app, but haven’t looked into courses yet. Are they something you can do at your own pace? I’m not sure yet how he will manage with more structured learning so need to take it slow I think, although he will happily talk about the elements all day long.

So I found this old set, I think it’s proper molymod? No instructions whatsoever though. So will head to YouTube. He loves Lego, knex etc so right up his street in many ways.

I am also enjoying looking for room decorations as we are moving soon and he will finally have his own bedroom :o

Oh hang on. Is it basically that you watch the videos in the set order? On Khan I mean. We haven’t really done much online learning until recently.

Enjoyed the original elements song too, thank you! I’d only heard the brief Big Bang theory version :o but thanks to a YouTube black hole we ended up seeing Daniel Radcliffe doing it too... and then doing something called the Alphabet Rap. :o

Khan is great for self learning. Yes, as you say, you watch the video, then take practice quiz. They have unit test that you can take after finishing each section to check your understanding. You can do it totally on your own pace. Great thing about video tutorials is that you can watch it again and again, if you don't get it first time. And there are Khan community that you can ask questions, and also you can view the questions/answers asked by others, which is great help as well.

Yes that's a molymod set.

Short rods= single bond (represented as -)
2xLonger rods= double bond (represented as =)
Black = carbon
Light Blue = Nitrogen
White = hydrogen
Red= oxygen
Green = chlorine
Yellow = sulphur
Silver = metal
Lilac = phosphorus