http://media.photobucket.com/image/printable%20periodic%20table/crissytrewin/PeriodicTable.jpg
I love that table! Awesome! I could have used that back in chemistry class. 
I’ve been working on the periodic table for LR. I hit a road block b/c I was using some pictures from wikimedia and I didn’t realize that a few elements were missing. I actually had 2 pictures for each element, and the fist set of pictures is complete. DadDude, maybe you could help?
Thanks for the link!! I can definitely use this
nbhockaday, I’ve made three chemistry presentations that introduce elements (and other aspects of chemistry), which my little boy really likes. I’ll bet you will be able to get some good ideas from that. I’ll have to make them available soon.
What I personally would like to have in a presentation of the elements is: the element name (e.g., Potassium); the abbreviation (K); the element number (19); and labelled pictures of 1-2 things that the element is found or used in.
Also, I’d exclude all the higher elements that no one but chemists cares about…isn’t it enough to learn the familiar ones and info about them? Maybe all of them through 30, and then selected ones after that?
I’m doing all of them, with 11 (I think) in each category. So people can just download whatever they want. I say the element and then I say the elements number for the picture audio (which can easily be turned off). The first picture I have is the shell pictures from wiki commons (it also shows the element abbreviation and number and some chemical info too). I wanted the other picture to be the abbreviation and the number like what you find on the periodic table, but I can’t find the full table of individual elements like that. This is the one that I was getting my individual elements from, and as you can see, there are many missing. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Albedo-ukr/Periodic_table
But I would like something like that. I can’t find it anywhere.
I have posted some periodic elements on the EK flash card printouts at least the ones i know how to explain … its EK so canbe used for 1.5 or 2 yrs up.
http://forum.brillkids.com/downloads/?cat=156
There is no point flashing the entire periodic table as there are too much information on it for the little one to see, also the words maybe too small … I think as a introductory would be fine… breaking each bits of intelligence smaller you can have more intelligence or info to read.
However, it would be good to make it into LR, which i don’t have it yet still trying to get my points, would be to intro the periodic table, and then show colour of the element table like gas or metals, and then the periodic element table with its atomic weight, symbols, number of electrons on each shell, and then the electrons on the shell as a diagram and the pictures of the raw element, where the element can be found in, eg K, potasium can be found in bananas … easy abc linking for babies … but unfortunately that kind of work is … woo documentary level …
Nevermind hope somebody going to churn it out in blu ray form, including many other docu-baby info too, You know like those from BBC or NASA or National Geagraphic. (You know stuff like the blue planet, the solar system etc)(hmm but then again there is the internet probably i just teach her how to read and use the internet … :yes: ) Just the lazy me talking.
Hi the table is awesome … I did not even think that I could teach my girl chemistry at an earlier before reading this mail
Hello everyone!
I’m new so I’m sorry if my questions are too basic. How would you guys actually teach chemistry? Would you flash the presentation that Trinity Papa did and then use the periodic table that DadDude posted to reinforce palying with it?
I don’t know, I just gave him a “tape-laminated” copy of the periodic table to play with, and have shown him my Chemistry 1-3 presentations. He seems to be rather interested in them. FWIW he saw a bottle of Clorox the other day and got excited. I asked him what’s in it, and he said chlorine. So it must be sinking in.
Hi have actually considered teaching chemistry. It is one of those subjects that can be difficult for most people to grasp later in life and involves a lot of memorization. I have seen it hold back people from their desired career path. I also think some preschool kids would like playing with chemistry models. Maybe one of my kids will show and interest in science, if they do I will definitely teach chemistry.
DadDude, I was going to post this in your tips thread, where you mentioned that you don’t think parents should teach certain elements, but this is a more appropriate thread. You do know that kids have to take chemistry in high school, right? I had to learn all the elements. I think it would have been easier if I would have had some kind of introductory foundation to chemistry when I was younger. If we teach elements to kids (or not necessarily teach them, but show them) then they may have an easier time learning them later. It’s just like all the Doman encyclopedic knowledge stuff. Some of it is unnecessary, but some of it will help later in school if the child recalls the info.
nhockaday, please don’t take offense. I won’t fault you or anybody for teaching all the elements, if you can get the kid to sit still long enough to learn them. I don’t mean to say that it’s worthless knowledge or anything. There is much more trivial information out there.
I had two years of chemistry at a good public school. I never had to memorize all the elements, as far as I can recall (it was a long time ago though), and knowing every one of the elements wouldn’t have especially helped me at the time. It is much more useful to have solid knowledge of the most important and commonly-used and -discussed elements. Besides, if my little boy were to memorize them at age 2, I really doubt he would remember the more obscure ones at age 10, or 15, or whenever he was studying chemistry at a high school level. I’ll bet it would be easier to re-memorize them then, for whatever that’s worth.
My concern is mainly the opportunity cost–what you aren’t doing, because you are doing this. But that of course is up to each parent to decide for him- or herself.
I didn’t mention that many college degrees, not just a chemistry degree, will require the student to take chemistry in college. I think we all agree that learning is much easier the younger you are, so why not take advantage of teaching everything that a child may need later in life? I like some of the things said on this page http://www.universalpreschool.com/ask-an-expert/science-expert.asp
I did not take offense, I just think that learning the periodic table is something that will help a child later in life. I agree that things like learning obscure birds will not be something that will benefit a child later, but chemistry is all around us and it is a hard subject to learn. If a child already has a basic knowledge, then it will be easier. You are right when you say that it is better to teach the important elements, and I agree that’s where the focus should be, but why not (at least) introduce them all? I am not saying make your kid memorize every one, but let him/her know what’s out there that makes up our world.
Although a child who is shown the elements may not remember every one of them later, he may find it easier to learn them or recall them. There have been instances that I have read about in which older children and adults could recall encyclopedic knowledge info that they were taught when they were young.
And parents can show the periodic table, lets say once a week or a few of times a month, and then they have all of the rest of the time to teach more important subjects. I don’t think that spending a few minutes occasionally on a subject will take away from the things that a child should be learning. But like you said, to each is own. It is definitely not something I am going to spend a lot of time teaching, but I think it will be beneficial if it is taught in a rapid-flashed fashion.
And FYI, I had to memorize all the element abbreviations and many of the numbers :wacko: .
Hi guys!
I am sooooo sorry but if anyone can help me on how to teach this I will really really apperciate it.
Sorry but I have forgotten it completely I just cannot recall it at all It is like this part has been wiped off …
Please please help me thank you
Actually i think dad dude n nhockaday are all correct just depending on what approach you take i prefer to take a holistic views of things … so like dad dude i listen to all views and then see which is the best and see if it can be adapted to my child’s characteristics … if she likes it its easier to teach … anyway who says the best is the best for everybody and anybody … some man’s food can be other man’s poison right?? of cours enot that extreme just kids learn in different ways … so everyday becomes a trial and error approach by going broad and then narrowing down depending on the child’s interest …
anyway how would i approach chemistry or anything else?
It depends on how old my child is. Since she is 16 mths now, i would not be teaching chemistry yet till say 18mths, and then i treat it as per normal EK. Reading thru point 1, but breaking it down to several more points. I amnot sure if she is listening or registering. But once i finish the whole lot + a few hundred other EK, i would repeat it again, by the time she would be 2+ or even 3, by then her vacab should be larger and she would be asking more qns … and the other points would become important or at least can be read where she can understand, but having done it before she may feel a certain thingy in her mind that “hey i heard that or saw that somewhere before” and hopefully she would spark an interest in it … and by then i would not necessarily complete th ehwole lot or would depending on her interest. So as i go thru and she asking lots of qns and if she wants to know more about certain chemicals, by then we can do a search together on the internet. And if she is interested in knowing all the chemicals then we will do it if not we just stop or skip, and come back to it again when she is 5 or 7 or 9, since chemical elements in the periodic table don’t change just more get added, it does not expire … so i am not doing it to store it in her head period, but to read it to build her vocab, and interest, …
afterall we are just intro it to her, n as a exploratory of subjects … whether she will buld an interest in it to go deeper it would be up to her … hope it helps to view it this way
I wouldn’t dream of insisting on people doing it “my way.” Kids obviously differ hugely (and change constantly) in their tastes and aptitudes, and it’s best (IMO) to bear both tastes and aptitudes in mind.
Really, I’m trying clumsily to make a subtle but important point…and one that I am pretty sure everybody will agree with. The fact is that there is a huge body of information (or knowledge), of the same level of difficulty (or easiness) as the periodic table, which we could be passing on to our kids. The question is: before age 3 or whenever, what really do you want to expose your kid to? That’s an opportunity cost question. It can’t be everything.
I can’t help but think that the reason we (myself included of course!) want to teach the periodic table, and things like countries of the world, and historical empires (my next topic 
), flower, cat, and dog types, etc., is that they all come in nice neat lists.
But there is a problem with lists, which I’m pretty sure all of us understand at some level. If all you do is list a bunch of things off, you teach the child the quite false notion that all the items on the list are equal in importance. Yttrium isn’t as important as Oxygen, and the Umayyad Empire just wasn’t as important as the Roman Empire for the history of the West (IMHO), and if you know a dog breed make it a labrador before a shi tzu (in this country, anyway). So, rather than give ten facts about each item that happens to land on the list, I would prefer to give two facts about the unimportant items and 100 facts about the relatively few important ones.
What I want to say is this. We can just teach a lot of more or less disconnected facts–but we don’t have to, even to toddlers. This is relatively easy for us to do, because such facts are already compiled and well known. We could also be teaching judgments, context, and connections between facts. This is more difficult (because it requires research and judgment on our part), but it is just as important, I think. By all means, I think it’s important to learn the facts, and Yttrium and the Umayyad Empire no doubt at some point too. But to make the facts meaningful, and to give little kids more tools to use and think about the facts, you really do have to impart a lot of context that isn’t easily put into a list.
Hi dad dude understand what you mean totally dude. (Don’t mind my pun.)
I think what your refering to is the left brain. Wisdom. Hmm i think there is a chart somewhere where they casually draws the ability of the right brain decreases with age but logic and wisdom increases with age. According to GD EK should be tought as clear, honest and factual (in layman), this is to avoid opinion being thought as fact. This is to avoid the child accepting opinions as facts, and becomes ingrained.
Eg when i was teaching astronomy, or rather the planets and the sun in our solar system as an intro, the status of pluto was changed. It is no longer classified as a planet, and as the materials i have was printed some time ago, i have to be careful to avoid using the world planet for pluto. Unfortunately this piece of info, a planet or otherwise, is still being debated and its subject to the astronomy committe to figure that out.
Anyway back to the point, yes i think there is an opportunity cost of teaching one thing you might forgo another, hence why teach early, and sometimes because teach early have to repeat. As such what to teach, as much factual info as possible. I would love to teach medical names just that i can’t pronounce some of the latin words.
You see, i am not sure if a child’s interest and subsequent career choices is necessary a matter of the stars, so i guide her in area i think is interesting, is useful, or would be useful in her life in the future. Currently because i have EK on everyday stuff at home, to music instruments, to animals and insects etc, i just use them first. But will be building other library list, such as chemistry, mathematical formulaes, geagraphy, biology, music, and such… once i figure out what is the best way to present, what to present and how to present in a pattern. Currently just getting her use to it.
GD says you don’t have to go into very deep details, a general overview. I think he meant (which he didn’t say outright, makes his pro words looks too simple) to intro a wide field of so called general knowledge to your child, and whichever he subsequently takes an interest in to focus or go into greater detail as an exploratory subject subsequently. That’s one thing i find about GD’s books, he has to sound really professional and profound with all this classy words, but in actual fact could be simplified for the layman, and you would be saying OMG that is what i have been doing all along, except he puts it in such a way that it sounds so sophisticated that “i need to be doing that or i am missing something”. Afterall, he did mention to accumulate 1000 cards before doing EK, and that would take yrs. And for the time being your supposed to flash those cards finish before reading the EK. And we’re suppose to read 1 bit per card for all the cards before doing bit 2. So if you have 5 bits of intelligence and 1000 cards your doing it 5000 times. Say rabbit, done today, for 5 days, faster kids 3 days, do about 20-50 cards each 3-5 day period. So rabbit is repeated some 100-300 days later. So your 1000 cards is tot over 2-4 yrs. By that time your child would show you what interest them and what not. But what interest them, would depend on what your showing them, afterall how can one be interested in something he doesn’t yet know exist.
But i guess the basic idea is to get them a broad spectrum of gneral knowledge, let them choose what interest them, teach them how to research and find info, and not learning the subject per se but to learn how to learn subjects that interest them. Actually this is pretty left brain, learning how to learn, but because its flashing of cards they treat it as right brain thingy. But i would say, it helps connect the right n left brain, using the right brain to absorb and store, and the leftbrain to analyse, compare and judge, which comes with experience and wisdom. Which a great daddude like you would impart. ( This is something like for between 4-10yrs old.)
http://www.youtube.com/v/FHRGxkzHT7w?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
A periodic table table! This is EK at a master level lol
I bought his cards, they are excellent.
also his website is amazing … http://www.theodoregray.com/periodictable/indexSR.html#tabletop all sorts of teaching opportunities there.