Homeschooling Study: Human Anatomy

We will be finishing up our unit study on Rivers and Lakes today, and then tomorrow we begin a study on Human Anatomy. As I think I mentioned in my last homeschooling post, we try and choose our unit studies based on some of the activities going on at local museums, universitites, etc. On April 4th, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science opened up their Expedition Health exhibit, and the kids and I will be visiting there a few times over the coming weeks.

I also decided to do a human anatomy study because while at the book store a few weeks back, the kids became engrossed in the book Uncover the Human Body. This is a truly excellent book for young learners to begin to get an understanding of the way that the human body functions, the layers of systems that are present, and how proper nutrition and care for oneself is what keeps our bodies functioning properly. As you can tell from our last homeschooling post, our unit studies are not quick, but rather we introduce small concepts each day, and let the children guide us as to what they are ready or interested in learning.

This unit study involves perhaps more reading then the last, but it also will be a very interactive unit study since after each discussion, the kids will go out and try and physically experiment with what they have just learned (for instance, learning about the way that the heart pumps blood, and then taking your pulse at rest, and after active play). This will be a slow exploration, but I think one that they will value learning so young.

Some wonderful online references to teaching children anatomy
Education World
Ed Tech
Anatomy Resources
teAchnology
Classroom Activities

I have included references that can be used for a lot of different age ranges. For a family of young children like ours, taking things slowly and introducing concepts in a fun way is where the real learning is going to come. Our daily math, science, history and art lessons will be easily geared towards the kids learning about the ways that their bodies work, and over time their sense of themselves will hopefully be greatly enhanced from the knowledge that how they treat themselves will be reflected in how their body feels.

Our human anatomy unit study can be found here