Anatomy Lessons

Around the beginning of October, I asked Delaney what she would like to learn about next, and she said "the body". She wanted to start with the heart and blood. Hailey dissected a (sheep? pig?) heart last year in science, so she helped Delaney learn the parts of the heart. We watched a fun video on Discovery Streaming about how the red and white blood cells work and move around the body.

I like hands-on stuff way more than videos, so I did some searching and found this guy:

A Squishy Human Body Model? Awesome!

We ordered it and couldn't wait to check it out once it arrived. The model comes completely apart, and the squish factor makes it even better.  It also has instructions to guide you through putting the guy back together. It was determined right away that I would probably be a terrible surgeon. :) 

Cullen helped the kids take it apart.

 They all thought it was pretty cool.

The set comes with a book that tells you all about the organs, and a cool mat that you match all of the organs to.

Ew, a stomach! Where does this go?

 Delaney named the guy "Dead Eye Dirk", after a pirate in one of her books.

We have been taking Dead Eye Dirk apart and putting him back together ever since. The poor guy probably has some digestive issues, because his small intestines have been straightened out and folded back up quite a few times, courtesy of Soph. It has been an excellent way to learn about all of our organs!

We moved on to the eye after the heart and blood. We learned all about sight and how the eye works. I happened to have an eye appointment the same week, so I brought Delaney along and she was able to see the picture of the back of my eye, look at a model of an eye and ask Dr. Bergeson lots of good questions. Delaney and Hailey did some fun optical illusion and depth perception experiments.

We are now learning about the ear, and tomorrow will be making a model of the ear drum. I also have some hearing and equilibrium experiments for us to do.

I have to say, I am loving anatomy way more than physics (much to my husband's chagrin). It just reminds me again that a child-let curriculum is often much more exciting and interesting than the direction I think I want to go.

Even Sophie is learning a lot.

I have found too many free anatomy resources on the web to list them all, but if you need some ideas, check out my Pinterest Homeschool Science board. I have found some great sites with activities and lessons for Delaney's age, all the way up to middle school age for Hailey.