Summer School Anatomy

I think that it is safe to say that we all LOVED summer school this year.  Weird, I know but we are turning into homeschool nerds and it makes this mama proud.  I think we are growing some life-long learners!  We spent our Summer knee deep in Anatomy and this is the story in pictures (lots and lots and lots of pictures) of our journey through Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology from Apologia.  The kiddos and I worked together to summarize our summer of learning...I hope we don't bore you!

To celebrate our hard work, we picked up grandma and headed to the Kansas Learning Center for Health.  We saw Veleda, the Transparent Talking Woman, whom I remember seeing thirty plus years ago.  The museum has added lots of great hands on exhibits since that time and the two hours we spent there could have easily turned into three, if we had only had more time!  Here are a few more pictures from our field trip...

  Now rewind a few months to the beginning of July...  This is by no means inclusive of the chapters we covered but it gives you a few snapshots into our summer.  This is where my guest blog writers, Bentley, Payton, and Conner take over...enjoy!

 Scientists have learned a lot about Anatomy from the Ancient Egyptians because they mummified bodies.  We used different mixtures of table salt, Epsom salt, and baking soda to see what combination preserved the apples the best.  After seven days our results were inconclusive.  That happens sometimes to even the greatest Scientists.

 Cells contain the nucleus, mitochondria, golgi bodies, dna, the cell membraine, lysosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, and centrioles.  We made cell made of jello and candy representing each of its parts.

In our chapter about the Skeletal System we learned how important our bones are.  We made clay people and tried to make them stand then we added toothpicks for bones and they were able to stand up.  Without "bones", they face-planted over and over again!

We also dissected chicken bones.  We broke the bones and looked at the bone marrow where the blood cells come from.  Some of our bones were soaked in vinegar to remove the calcium.  Without the calcium, they were very soft and "bendy."

During our Study of the Muscular System, we learned about how our facial expressions can affect our emotions.  We learned about the different types of muscles and how they work.

We learned about how our bodies digest food.  Saliva starts out our digestion (Conner had permission to show his food).  We broke down food in a baggie much like out stomach does.  We also made bile in a bowl and learned about how it helps our stomach to digest food. Ewwww.

We learned about Iron Fortified Cereals.  We smashed up cheerios and used a magnet to extract the tiny iron pieces.  We are eating pieces of metal every day!

We studied the Respiratory System and how our lungs and diaphragm work together.  We also learned about what smoking does to our lungs.  We made a model of a lung and diaphragm.  This was a favorite toy around our house for a few weeks (I told you we were nerds)!

Our chapter on blood started out by telling us about the eternal significance of blood and how Christ's death on the cross is the ultimate sacrifice.  We made "blood" and learned about how blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the rest of our body.

We learned about the four chambers of our heart and how it receives de-oxygenated blood and sends it to our lungs then back into the heart and out to the rest of our body.  Our snack was a model of our hearts made out of  graham crackers, frosting and marshmallows.

 We learned about smelling things using smell receptors and how the smell lands on little landing pads in our nose.  " That wasn't from the book...I learned that from Magic School Bus!

We dipped our hands in different temperatures of water and learned that our nerves only sense the change in temperature and not what the temperature actually is.  The water felt hotter than it was after we had our fingers in cold water and colder than it really was after having them in hot.

Our finger prints are unique and the police can catch criminals using their finger prints.  We learned that mom and dad had to be fingerprinted and pass background checks before they could foster or adopt.

We worked hard NIGHT and DAY but we finally finished.  It is a bit sad to be done but we are excited to take a short break and start our school year!!

You Might ask what our little people did while we were learning.  They learned too!  You will see them right there with the "big kids" during many of our experiments and even listening along to many of the chapters.  They also spent lots of time playing, hiding under my desk, and I will even admit, watching Sesame Street.

We leave you with these parting shots!