Teaching help

Attention span, quickness of apprehension, all that, is going to vary widely by kid, by subject, and by how interesting you are.

Fortunately you have a really good teacher/student ratio.

I'd suggest that you try to frame as much of it as you can as 'play', and to the extent that you can (if he shows any interest at all), let him guide it. If he says "hey, let's go throw rocks at trees', go throw rocks at trees, and discuss Newtonian mechanics. Get some flashlight bulbs and some batteries, and work at completing those circuits.

Expect to be disappointed, amazed, bored, dissed, admired, etc.

By that age I was already into electronics. IIRC simple battery powered audio and radio circuits with a couple of transistors. All breadboarded (literally - wooden board, steel screws, brass cup washers). I learnt to solder a couple of years later. Whether I would have got interested in electronics after home computers arrives is another issue.

I did a lot better in academic subjects that I needed to support my hobby . . .

Show him some cool stuff, get him 'hooked' then explain where this seasons lessons fit in what he will need to learn to do it himself. ;-)

Beware of attention grabbing demos. If it isn't safe enough to permit a hands on experiment . . . . . .

Be entertaining, otherwise you will lose his attention. ...Jim Thompson

Fortunately, at that age they're pretty easy to entertain unless they've already been dumbed down by the public schools.

With home-schooling there ought to be a wee bit more flexibility on that, so you can finish projects.

As Jim wrote, make it entertaining. Think about projects you could do together where you explain how stuff works, why, what the underlying physics laws are etc. Show him stuff on the scope. Let him use the scope and other tools.

I was totally bored in chemistry. Until we got a teacher from industry who didn't have what they call "credentials" (I sometimes call those a road block). His normal job was to design formulas and production methods for laundry detergent. Thick Czech accent, his first question to us was: "Wherr iss fiah ixtingishah?" Oh, this promised to be be fun, and it was ...

Scotch tape is great for some static electricity experiments. When you stick it and then pull it off of different things it picks up different sign charges. (Try glass, metal, plastic=85.list is endless). You can then use the two pieces of tape as the electrodes of a =91leaf=92 electrometer. Hold them close and see if they attract or repel. (you want about 2" long pieces, I=92m sure there=92s all sorts of stuff on the web.)

For magnetics it=92s fun to float a magnet in a bowl of water, (Styrofoam ?) and make a compass, Then you can bring other magnets near and see what happens. I always try and have the kids write things down. (I like doing 'science stuff' with my kids, "How far can you shoot this rubber band?, what's the best angle to shoot it at?")

Light bulbs and batteries are great to start circuits. LED=92s...

George H.

Moving cereal with a magnet.

Yea, match head rockets are such a good physics demo, otherwise.

Thank you to all who've reponded so far - some great ideas. :-)

Ed

I learned simple series and parallel circuits, SPST / SPDT switches, in 2nd grade, and, with help, wound a toilet-paper roll with wire + brass slider to make a tunable crystal radio. I was especially proud of getting several stations at once, something ordinary radios couldn't do. :-)

We made a baking soda + vinegar fire extinguisher in school, which I proudly duplicated at home and presented to Mom, for use in the kitchen.

And I remember making and bringing a hotdog cooker to school, comprising a suicide cord connected to two nails driven through a board. Pzzzzt, SNAP, sparkle sparkle SNAP sizzzzle, smoke...done to perfection. I was class hero for a day. I knew it was dangerous, so I was careful. Today you'd be arrested.

So, FWIW, show the kid neat, physical stuff. Like how invisible CO2 "pours" onto a candle and puts it out.

First the "what." Interested kids are curious -- the "how" and "why" follow naturally.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

I would say that if you yourself are not enjoying the topic,=20 you will bore and turn off the kid. Likewise if you are=20 having a good time the kid will want to do the same.