Can anyone help me find the magic in middle school chemistry? DS12 really needs to understand by doing and I am kind of stumbled for ideas. For instance, when DS was younger and had trouble grasping fractions, I used baking. 1/4 cup of an ingredient versus 1-1/4 cup would drastically alter his creations. The difference between a t and T mattered. We broke everything down and even made our own cleaning supplies just to get fractions down.

For middle school chemistry I have bought skittles to make atoms and followed an obscure youtuber to get the basics of atoms (protons, neutrons , electrons, AMU, etc), but now we are up to Lewis Dot Diagrams, covalent bonding, energy levels and DS12 is shutting down at a lot of data memorizing. I know there is magic in chemistry. Any suggestions to unlock it? I really believe DS12 is a scientist level at heart. He loves experimenting and blowing things up. TIA and wishing everyone a wonderful 2017!