Mad Science after school program?

[Anonymous]

My son is in K and has asked to do this after school program. Is it any good? It's about $14 per session so I'd like to hear any comments before signing up. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Complete waste of time from an educational standpoint, but your son might enjoy it as a chance to hang with some of his new kindergarten buddies.

[Anonymous]

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

is this by any chance one of the beauvoir enrichment activities that you're thinking of? we're trying to figure out what to sign our child up for also.

[Anonymous]

While it uses a commercial curriculum, Mad Science is usually run by parent vounteers. So the program is only as good as the people who volunteer.

http://www.madscience.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is this by any chance one of the beauvoir enrichment activities that you're thinking of? we're trying to figure out what to sign our child up for also.

OP here. No, we are in MCPS. Thanks for the feedback all. I guess we'll skip it. Unless he really begs.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who suggested that your son might enjoy the opportunity to socialize with his new classmates. In that vein, you might want to consider finding out whether his friends will also be doing Mad Science. If not, you can plan with your son to have a playdate after school on those days.

[Anonymous]

My child has never taken Mad Science, but I've heard from friends that it's a waste of time just like others on this board have said.

Last spring, he took Global Arts by a company called Left Noodle-Right Noodle (Right Noodle-Left Noodle?) and he really enjoyed it. The instructor was a first grade teacher from a catholic school (we go to an ACPS school) and she was fantastic with the kids. My son couldn't wait to go each week. I think we'll sign up again this year.

[Anonymous]

On the subject of science, our MCPS elementary offers Hands On Science as an after school activity, and dd both learned a lot and enjoyed it.

http://www.hosprograms.org/

[Anonymous]

My son LOVED mad science and really didn't much care for LNRN's Global Arts. I think it really depends on the instructor--the one at his school was such a hoot we hired her to do his birthday party.

I agree that it is more fun than educational, but it did seem to spark an interest in science that has carried forward into his regular school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the subject of science, our MCPS elementary offers Hands On Science as an after school activity, and dd both learned a lot and enjoyed it.

http://www.hosprograms.org/

This looks great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son LOVED mad science and really didn't much care for LNRN's Global Arts. I think it really depends on the instructor--the one at his school was such a hoot we hired her to do his birthday party.

I agree that it is more fun than educational, but it did seem to spark an interest in science that has carried forward into his regular school day.

I tend to agree. Clearly their priority is fun, but I'm not sure if you could even tell whether it's a complete waste of time, given that these are only kindergarteners who are getting an extra hour a week of exposure to scientific concepts.

[Anonymous]

We had a Mad Science bday party and it was awesome!!

I asked about the class and was told that it is geared in the same way in that there is a theme, such as heat. They do hands on experiments throughout the whole class. I think the heat one they made these twirl things that you put on a lamp and the heat of the lamp made it twirl.

The instructor is usually a college kid. They go through a training on each theme.