Best Ways to Teach Kids About Weather and Climate at Home

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Days are getting longer and April is on the horizon, which means a perfect mix of showers, rain, and getting out in the fresh air to learn all about the weather and climate. Usually, the majority of people would just leave that to their child’s school, but over the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned a lot of parents into teachers – which isn’t an easy adjustment. Children require a lot of different things to learn: some will learn simply by audio, some by visualizing, and others by getting involved and doing. Quite often they fit into more than one of these categories. Even so, before we digress too far, all children like their learning to be fun and there are tons of exciting activities you can do so they can learn all about the weather and climate.

Measure the Rain

Keeping track of how much it rains can be quite interesting, and you can do this by using a rain gauge. Your kids must have a reason why they are doing their activities.

To make your rain gauge you can follow these instructions: 

1. Grab yourself a 2-liter plastic bottle and cut away the top third (save this as you’ll need it later).
2. Put some stones in the bottom to keep it from falling over. 
3. Pour some water in the bottom to just above the stones.
4. Get some masking tape and draw a scale on it, using a ruler, and stick it to the bottle so that the 0 is just above your water line.
5. Now take the top of the bottle and invert it, attach it to the bottom of the bottle so it acts like a funnel.
6. Leave it outside and watch the rain collect.

This is easy to do, and you can find most of the things you need around the house.

Make a Tornado

This one is quite mesmerizing to watch. All of these experiments mean you might need to get yourself some equipment. 

1. Fill a bottle with 2/3 water and add glitter and food coloring.
2. Using duct tape to seal the bottle lid tightly closed.
3. Flip your bottle so the water is at the top and spin it in a circular motion.
4. This will create a beautiful vortex as the water flows back into the empty bottle (a little bit like your sink).

Eerie Fog

For this, you will teach your children what happens when cold air meets warm air:

• Fill an empty jar with boiling water and leave for a minute. 
• Empty it leaving about an inch.
• Put a strainer on top and place some ice cubes in it.
• As the hot and cold air meets, the fog will form.

If you can’t get enough of these experiments, then take a look here.

Teaching your children can be a fun and rewarding experience, you don’t need to bury their heads in books, and you get to spend some quality time watching them grow – they will look back and remember how much fun they had.