Homeschooling in California

Another favorite in our house is Sid the Science Kid, a PBS program. Since this comes on in the morning at a time when I assume most kids are in school, I’m assuming this show is actually aimed at preschoolers. Even so, I think it’s a great show for introducing basic science concepts, and the scientific process to children. Slightly older kids could expand on the basics in the show, but I’d guess that once you get a few years above the demographic for Sid the Science Kid, you probably would be bored with the show anyway.

What I like best is that there is a simple, usually quick to set up, experiment that goes along with each show. It gives us something to do at home so we can see that what we saw on TV is what really happens when we do the same experiment ourselves. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for the child to try to predict or hypothesize on their own, but at the preschool, and kindergarten level, that really isn’t the most important aspect of science yet.

If you’re more organized than me, and want to have your experiment ready to go as soon as the show is done, parents can even hop online and see what experiment goes with each show ahead of time. For that matter, if you’re anti-television, but want to use the experiments from the website, you can easily do that too. See http://pbskids.org/sid/index.html for links to local schedules, and info for parents, as well as games for kids.

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