Science at the kitchen table

How do I do hands-on science with young kids at home?

Keep it short, use things you already have, and let your child do the touching and noticing: a short exploration, an outdoor spot or plant you come back to over weeks, and a few minutes of talk about what happened teach more than an elaborate kit.

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Kitchen science and nature study

Ice melting in different spots, balls rolling down ramps, seeds in a wet paper towel, a walk sorting what is alive and what is not. A seasonal life cycle, such as an apple or a pumpkin through the fall, makes a good nature study: draw it, measure it and compare each week.

How long to stay on one

As long as your child is still asking questions. For most young children that is one session, with a repeat or a small change later in the week. Come back to a long study, like a plant or a tree, every week or two.

Clareza's K-2 science

Science Explorations for kindergarten to Grade 2 is done with you, not on a screen. Each week gives you a short scripted exploration with kitchen-table materials, the words to say and what to listen for, then a five-minute check-in where Clara asks what happened and your child answers by tapping. One tree your child adopts is studied all year.

Grades 3 to 5

Each grade has a full-year science course with investigations that use household materials. Grade 3 includes plant and animal life cycles, with a bean plant your child measures and records over time.

What this is not

  • Clareza does not ship a science kit. You gather what each lesson lists.
  • Clara cannot see the experiment. Your child does it and tells her what happened.
  • K-2 science needs you there for every exploration. It is not independent work.

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Before your child starts: what we collect and why

We collect only what it takes to teach your child: the first name and sign-in you choose, their answers and progress, and their chat with Clara (written by Anthropic's AI, read aloud by OpenAI). Nobody trains AI on it or sells it, and you can see or delete it any time. You create your child's account yourself. Paying by card is how you give consent.

Read what we collect and why

Your consent is needed before we collect anything from your child, and we collect nothing without it. You create your child's account yourself; they never sign up alone.

  • What we collect from your child: the first name and sign-in you choose, their answers, time on lessons and progress, and their chat with Clara. Used to run the lessons, build their transcript and show you how they are doing.
  • Who else handles it: Anthropic (an AI company) receives the chat text and the lesson, with your child's first name but no last name or account details, to write Clara's replies. That is how Clara works, so it is part of the service. If you switch on answering out loud for a child, their voice is turned into text on our own server and then discarded; it is never sent to another company. OpenAI turns lesson text and Clara's replies (which can include your child's first name) into the read-aloud voice. Our email provider sends you reports about your child. Nobody trains AI on your child's data, and nobody sells it.
  • Your rights: see everything collected from your child, have it deleted, or stop further collection at any time, from your account or by emailingour support address. If you refuse the AI sharing above, Clara cannot teach, so the service cannot run. Chats are deleted after 30 days.
  • Safety: if your child writes something suggesting they may be hurt or in danger, we email you and Clareza's owner the same day.

Paying by card is how you give consent. Full details, including how long we keep each thing: Privacy Policy (version 2026-10-05).

By continuing you agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

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Questions parents ask

How often should young kids do science?

Once or twice a week is plenty for most families before Grade 3. Clareza's K-2 course is one exploration a week.

Do I need a science kit for kindergarten?

No. Ice, water, seeds, a ramp and the outdoors cover most of it.

What about high school lab science?

That is a different job. See /homeschool-curriculum/homeschool-high-school-lab-science.

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