Teaching Your Kids About the Weather

Every day when children walk out of the house, they immediately experience the weather. Is it sunny or cloudy? Are flowers blooming, or are leaves falling from the trees? For children, weather is a great learning tool because it leads to exploration and discovery. Observing the weather is a good activity for a multi-age group. Older children will grasp more complicated concepts.

For very young children, the "study" of weather may mean merely experiencing the outdoors and developing an appreciation for nature. Teach your kids to explore the woods with eyes, ears, nose, and fingers on high alert. Bring a magnifying glass or binoculars for a close-up look at plants, flowers, and trees. Peer under logs and rocks for salamanders and insects. Sniff the pine trees. Feel the rough bark or the sticky sap. Children enjoy "finding" animals, people, and everyday objects in the clouds.

Looking at clouds' movement and shape is not only a great exercise of the imagination, but it leads to other subjects. It happens every day, yet few of us take the time to catch the changing hues of the morning or evening sky. If your kids are early risers, take them outside to listen to birdcalls and note the flurry of activity shortly after sunrise.

As time goes on, they begin to anticipate the change in seasons and the subsequent change in temperature. They become curious about the weather in their own right. So be prepared - when they're ready, they'll ask questions. Temperature is a degree of hotness or coldness the can be measured using a thermometer. It's also a measure of how fast the atoms and molecules of a substance are moving.

Temperature is measured in degrees on the Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin scales. Extremely hot weather takes a large toll on the human body. In an average year, the summer heat in the U.S causes about 175 deaths. People most at risk for heatstroke are the elderly, small children, and people with weight and alcohol problems. Always listen to the radio and television for the latest information and instructions for your area. A major winter storm can last for several days and be accompanied with high winds, freezing rain, sleet, heavy snowfall and cold temperatures.

Winter storms can make driving and walking extremely hazardous. Always listen to the radio and television for the latest information and instructions for your area. Weather is the mix of events that happen each day in our atmosphere including temperature, rainfall and humidity. Weather is not the same everywhere. Perhaps it is hot, dry and sunny today where you live, but in other parts of the world it is cloudy, raining or even snowing. Everyday, weather events are recorded and predicted by meteorologists worldwide.