Spring and summer are a fantastic time to take your homeschool outside! Hands-on projects can be completed year-round, but during these times, it’s easier to incorporate nature and do big, messy projects. Getting hands-on helps students to become more engaged, involve their senses in learning, and prevent burnout. It also helps to flesh out abstract ideas in a more concrete format, applying difficult-to-understand concepts into a real-world application. This not only helps the student understand more, but also retain more.

Each of these resources is appropriate for middle and high school students. If you prefer family-style teaching, they can be tailored down, or you may eliminate some of the more complicated aspects, for elementary students. Want to create your own hands-on nature study? Download the unit study planner, and get started exploring your family’s interests!

Exploring the outdoors is a great way to learn! Soak it all in, homeschool mama, and wear your homeschooling style proudly!

Think Like a Scientist

Mathematical concepts and the scientific method are a good place to start…

Get Inspired

Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to get started!

Take a Field Trip

Here are some virtual field trips that will inspire you to take one of your own…

Get Outside

Unplug and get your hands dirty!

Go Wild

Is it animals, wild plants, the jungle, or the human psyche that intrigues you?

A Little of This; A Little of That

Projects and ideas that didn’t really fit in a box…

Explore through the Pages

A literature study is a fantastic jumping-off point for further exploration. Pick a topic, read all about it, and then get hands on with the additional projects!

Use a Complete Curriculum

Maybe you’re not quite ready to head outside…or maybe you’re required to have more structured learning. Either way, these curricula incorporate real-world learning projects into the lessons!

Hands-On Subscription Boxes You’ll Love!

ForensiKit

Learn about forensic science and methods. Go hands-on with techniques like fingerprinting, collecting shoe prints, and more. Use the same tools the pros use to detect the presence of blood and identify theft suspects. Each box comes with gear that real investigators use along with activities designed to let you learn by doing. Your first box contains a free one-year subscription to our online detective game. Examine the evidence and solve the case.

MATTER

We search planet Earth for the most interesting forms of matter. Each month we ship fossils, tools, specimens, materials, or artifacts that have been carefully selected as some of the most interesting pieces of matter in our accessible universe. Part museum, part laboratory, perfect for quarantine! Feed your curiosity or spark someone’s else’s. This one is for the kid who knows everything!! It will spark an interest for further research…

Beautiful Discovery

Beautiful Discovery kits use visually and kinesthetically engaging patterns of nature to unleash your hidden pattern power and give you STEAM skills. Items include eco-games, art, origami, drag and drop code, models, natural wonders, full color informational cards, full color picture books and booklets, paints and colored pencils, drawing sheets with art lessons on patterns seen in the natural wonders.

Perfect for the student who is hesitant about math, but all about art! This box combines the beauty of nature with real-world math through projects with seashells, crystals, dried leaves, flowers, for their beautiful patterns. There’s even an computer coding element with simple drag and drop block coding that will simulate the patterns seen in the natural wonders studied in each box.

Spangler Science

Let’s make science fun one month at a time! A subscription to Spangler Science Club is a guarantee that we’re working together to prepare your young scientist for a future STEM-based career. Choose from one of three levels of hands-on science kits and subscribe to amazing science delivered every month!

Groovy Lab in a Box

With Groovy Lab in a Box, you will receive boxes full of everything you need to learn about and do hands on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiments for ages 8+. We blend Scientific Inquiry and the Engineering Design Process, which allows children to create ingenious inventions, enhance problem solving skills and FUN!