[Sirius]

Hi all! I'm new here and I need your help. I'm 4th grade high school student and next autumn I'm probably goint to start studying chemistry at university. I have pretty good theoretical knowledge of chemistry but I'm awful when it comes to practice. I did only few of the most basic experiments (we don't do practical work at school) and I'd like to do some experiments. The problem is that I don't have a lab where I can do some practice. So this summer I decided to practice some simple experiments at home. Can you recomend me any book with good experiments that can be done at home? I saw this: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Home-Chemistry-Experiments/dp/0596514921 Can that be useful? Thank you in advance.

[ZuraKotaro]

I really won't suggest doing lab works at home, stuff that really increase your skills often involve using materials you don't want to accidentally spill on your carpet. Two things that I would DEFINITELY suggest for you to practice on are pipetting and burette reading, both of which involves equipments that you can't find just anywhere, and are both ever-so-useful to familiarize yourself with.

I'd suggest going to a local university or collage and ask for permission to use one of their lab rooms, under supervision of course, to practice these skills. Be prepared for some difficulty in booking a room, and forking over some green, but these lab technicians can help you in ways you can't imagine.

If you don't happen to live beside a university or collage, just try doing some research to find a lab near you, sometimes a hospital might be nice enough to let you go in.

All in all, don't do experiments at home, these kinds of experiments are all half-play, and don't present the situations you're going to face in a real lab. If you're serious in getting some real lab experience, go for a real lab.

p.s. If you did manage to get yourself a lab remember this, when pipetting, plug the top with your INDEX FINGER, NOT YOUR THUMB!! I cannot stress this enough, I've seen more than one instances of people who fell with their thumb on their pipette and ended up getting a piece of glass pipette embedded in their flesh.

[Sirius]

Ok, thanks a lot

[408]

I really won't suggest doing lab works at home, stuff that really increase your skills often involve using materials you don't want to accidentally spill on your carpet.

I would suggest home experiments to anyone. With precautions and limitations on what you work with it is just as safe as at university.  The book that was linked to in the first post is probably the best out there currently. I did chemistry at home for 6 years before university started.
 

Two things that I would DEFINITELY suggest for you to practice on are pipetting and burette reading, both of which involves equipments that you can't find just anywhere, and are both ever-so-useful to familiarize yourself with.

Get the liquid at the lines.  Done.
 

I'd suggest going to a local university or collage and ask for permission to use one of their lab rooms, under supervision of course, to practice these skills. Be prepared for some difficulty in booking a room, and forking over some green, but these lab technicians can help you in ways you can't imagine.

"Hi can I read a burette in your lab?"
...WTF...
Buy one on ebay if you want to practice this....but if you want improve your synthetic abilities maybe actually try synthesizing something

If you don't happen to live beside a university or collage, just try doing some research to find a lab near you, sometimes a hospital might be nice enough to let you go in.

Or buy on ebay for a few dollars each.

All in all, don't do experiments at home, these kinds of experiments are all half-play, and don't present the situations you're going to face in a real lab. If you're serious in getting some real lab experience, go for a real lab.

Practice for what you will do.  if you plan on just doing titrations, sure, spend your time being sure you can get liquid levels at the desired lines 
But university chemistry involves far more than that.  I would say try something that will give you experience in many areas.  For example, make sodium chlorate from sodium hypochlorite by boiling, then react with potassium chloride to obtain potassium chlorate.  Then recrystallize it.  I would say recrystallization is one of the most important techniques in chemistry and it is amazing how many of my students, even those at the end of their undergrad, still suck at it.

Generally, synthetic chemistry (ie make something!) with encompass many more of the techniques you will encounter in university.