Fill your summer months with STEM activities that keep your children engaged right at home!

STEM education is essential from an early stage for kids as it drives their curiosity, innovation skills, creativity and much more. 

From doing science experiments or challenges with math/engineering problems, all these activities are engaged in training those necessary skills early on. It also teaches how to use critical thinking skills to problem solve.

What Does STEM Look Like At Home?

At home or at school, STEM learning is always engaging, hands-on, and very much project-based learning. Usually, these activities should be fun and not a traditional pen-and-paper homework activity. 

There are many different STEM ideas and activities for your home. Here are 5 steps to integrate STEM learning in your daily learning routine!

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1. Physical Projects

Having something engaging and hands-on tends to attract kids' attention more, especially when the kid is in control of building something that represents what they’re learning. Physical projects are a great way to drive your child’s natural creativity and apply basic educational learning skills. 

An easy and mess-free project you can try at home is building a model of the solar system with paper plates and just a few crayons! If a project like this interests you, check out our space education module here, you will find engaging activities about space that are paired with our Good Night Little Astronaut book.

Our Life to Learn in Space education module is also available in Spanish.

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2. Exposure

Netflix and YouTube offer a wide variety of educational content suitable for all ages. Netflix's Space Racers invites your child to join the Space Cadets as they go on missions to learn new facts about our planet and the galaxy we live in all while having fun with engaging and fun characters. You can even find STEM education toys on the Space Racers website.

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3. Online Learning With Tech 

In the midst of the pandemic, many students struggled with online learning. Even so, you can learn a wide range of skills using many fantastic resources! One very important skill within tech is learning how to code. One of the best ways to engage kids in coding is to introduce them to engaging, fun, game-oriented coding courses.

Many platforms can serve this purpose, but some recommendations include code.org, Scratch, and Tynker. They all have engaging courses and ways to play around after you learn the basics!

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4. Engaging Environment 

STEM is all around us, and we use it in our everyday activities in life. By cooking your favourite recipe, you are undergoing flavour chemical compositions or turning things into solids and liquids! 

Encourage your kids to become curious and passionate about learning more by involving them in simple activities like cooking, helping fix things, going outside, gardening, and so on. 

Boost engagement by asking your children why they think something is or isn't working. Ask them to apply their knowledge. You may need to look up the answer yourself if they do not know the answer.

 

5. Participation Within The Community 

Sometimes the STEM environment can go outside your home and interact with the people around you. You can do STEM activities with your neighbours and tell them about something you may have tried, or you can go to camps that focus on these topics! 

Many STEM camps can be offered in your area competitions, which you can find in your local community! Getting your child engaged with other kids passionate about learning about these things can push them forward.

Ad Astra Media Resources and More!

 

At Ad Astra Media, we are focused on providing education for creating a better future for this next generation by empowering children to become future scientists, doctors, astronauts and much more to change our planet!

Making an impact in the world starts by learning and empowering the incoming generations. There is a bright future for them, and you can start building that future now, right at home! 

 

 

For more about our education modules and children’s books, visit our shop!

“10 Reasons Why Stem Is Important in Preschool.” Paper Pinecone, 17 Dec. 2020, https://www.paperpinecone.com/blog/10-reasons-why-stem-important-preschool. 

“How Parents Can Bring Stem Learning to Life.” National Inventors Hall of Fame®, https://www.invent.org/blog/trends-in-stem/parent-involvement-in-stem. 

Maya, Erika. “5 Ways Parents Can Encourage Stem at Home.” Sherman Oaks, CA Patch, Patch, 6 Dec. 2017, https://patch.com/california/shermanoaks/5-ways-parents-can-encourage-stem-home. 

P Keeney. “What Does Stem Education Look like?” Learning Liftoff, 13 July 2015, https://www.learningliftoff.com/what-does-stem-education-look-like/. 

Team, Sphero. “A Parent's Guide to Introducing Stem at Home.” Sphero, Sphero, 12 Nov. 2020, https://sphero.com/blogs/news/parents-guide-stem-at-home.