Science at Home With the Family Plan: A Weekly Routine

What the Family plan includes

The Family plan is $149.99 a year and covers:

• one parent account
• up to four kid profiles
• every lab
• a short weekly progress e-mail to the parent, sent only with the parent's consent and with an unsubscribe link in every message

The kid profiles hold only an optional nickname you choose, an age band, an avatar and completed levels. Children do not need their own accounts. Older siblings can use the student labs, which go further into the same subjects with more maths. One plan can therefore cover a six-year-old and a sixteen-year-old.

A simple weekly rhythm

A routine only works if it is easy to keep. Something like this fits into most weeks:

1. Monday, 15 minutes: one new lesson together, parent beside the child.
2. Midweek, 10 minutes: the child picks a favourite to repeat and shows you.
3. Weekend, 20 minutes: a screen-free follow-up at the kitchen table.
4. Sunday evening, 2 minutes: read the parent e-mail and pick next week's topic.

If a week goes by with nothing, just pick it up the week after. A habit that survives missed weeks is worth more than a perfect schedule.

With more than one child, give each their own profile so that levels and avatars are theirs. Siblings often enjoy teaching each other.

Kitchen-table follow-ups, safe and simple

The best follow-up is something small, physical and screen-free. All of these use only things you already have, with no heat, no chemicals and no sharp tools:

• Shadows and the Sun: after A spinning Earth, place a toy on a windowsill and mark the tip of its shadow with tape every hour.
• Light: after Light Travels in Straight Lines, shine a torch on a mirror and a sheet of paper and describe what happens in each case.
• Magnets: after Poles and forces, test which household objects a fridge magnet sticks to, and sort them into two piles.
• Levers: after What Is a Lever?, use a ruler on a pencil as a seesaw and balance coins on each side.

Keep it playful and let the child decide what to test next. Wiping up spills is part of the fun.

Questions that keep curiosity going

You do not need the answers. These questions work for almost every topic:

• What do you think will happen? Why?
• What did you change, and what happened?
• What could we try to make it work better?
• How would you explain it to a friend?
• What is still puzzling you?

Resist the urge to correct quickly. A wrong prediction followed by a surprise is how scientists learn, and children learn the same way. Say "good guess" and "let's find out".

Using the weekly e-mail well

The weekly e-mail is a short summary meant for you. It is only sent if you agree to it, and every message carries an unsubscribe link. Use it as a conversation starter rather than a report card: "I saw you finished a level on shadows, can you show me?"

Avoid comparing children to each other, or turning levels into targets. Progress in a calm, playful setting is mostly about keeping the door open.

You can read how profiles work on the grown-ups page, and what is collected on the kids privacy page.

A note on the simulations

The labs are simplified teaching models. They show a clear version of an idea so that children can experiment quickly, and the kitchen-table activities connect that idea to the real world. Use both together and you get the best of each.

If you would like to see what is included, take a look at the pricing page. For a first lesson, the whole family can watch A spinning Earth together.