Science and Chemistry Supplies and Resources Available

Finding homeschool chemistry supplies can be tedious and expensive especially when going from lesson to lesson and when your child advances in subject matter. Finding supplies is easy when you know where to look.

Money Savers

First try to find free textbooks and laboratory guides that are downloadable. Most modernized chemistry sets have banned the ready use of many chemicals that were available in the old sets. The older sets gave children more of an opportunity to really explore actual science phenomenon and the modern sets include alternatives such as green slime and play dough.

Lab Supplies

When a lesson calls for specific supplies or chemicals, try researching the actual modern uses for each chemical. Go to sites such as Wikipedia for starters and then go from there. Many science sites, like .edu or .gov, have a lot of information when it comes to setting up your chemistry lab.

Do Some Research

Find out exactly the ingredient needed and do not just settle for a solution that contains what you need because this can become very dangerous. If you need, for example, sodium hydroxide, another common name for this is Lye, which is a product that many soap crafters have and is found in many grocery and drug stores. You can find other chemicals needed at the garden supply mart, the photo lab, a home improvement store, or even at your local pool store.

There are some good free guides that you can get from Supercharged Science called Six Keys to Teaching Homeschool Science and Chemistry

Homeschool Supplies Online

Many of the chemicals that are shipped to the United States are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Many of these chemicals are used in the illegal meth operations. Companies who ship chemicals have to follow strict labeling, packaging, and the recording of sales. If you decide to purchase your chemicals online, be very careful and read all the instructions. Some shippers require you to pay extra fees for special packaging.

There are free programs that you can view that show you the experiments right on your computer. You can just watch these or watch and do them yourself. This way you get to seem them done correctly first instead of trying to figure it out on your own - Science Activity Manual and Video Guide

Safety Precautions

Make sure to store all your chemicals in a dry and cool place. Purchase your supplies ahead of time so that you can have everything on hand when your child starts each lesson.

Another way to perform safe experiments is to use a service like Supercharged Science. All their experiments are online. You can choose to just watch them or watch them and then do them on your own. They have simple supply lists and instructions that are easy to follow.