Human Body - Bones, Muscles, Lungs & Senses

We have finally picked up with our Human Body Unit after a long break at Grandma and Grandpa's. This week, we learned about bones and muscles.

We read about bones in a book from the library. Kaleb decided to join us that day.

J made her own personal skeleton and label each of the bones .

She wanted a colorful skeleton which I think she achieved. We call him Mr. Skinless.

J worked on adding her bones to her body outline. She was somewhat disappointed because the bones were too short for her body outline. So, it looks little funny with her leg outline and a short leg bone.

She made a model of a growing bone and tried it out on her leg.

A spine model that she made and wore.

J researched muscles and bones on a few child friendly websites. She added some notes to her notebook.

She made a working model of the muscles of an arm. Pretty cool.

We played the game Some Body that I found at a Homeschool Book Sale. It was so cheap that I couldn't say no. It was a great review game.

The last week of school, we had to double up to finish our body unit. So J is finishing her work on her notebook pages about the lungs and liver.

A great body app finally came up on sale. I was waiting for it. J was checking it out and you can see by her face, she is somewhat grossed out.

She worked on the model of the lungs for her body outline.

We read about the human eye and made a simple model of one. Again, the grossed out look. Wait until she dissects a cow eyeball! I can't wait for that! (That will a few years off though.)

Here is the finished eye model.

She is adding skin to her body. She thought it looked bare. It was a good Science unit and I  am please with the way it turned out. I love the body project. I tried to get her to add hair but she was done with school. Oh, well - maybe when I use this unit with Kaleb:)

Final Day of School - last thoughts

We have reached the end of the school year. A few thoughts on how our year went. It started rocky with all of the changes and the moving around we did. We were unsure of where we were going to be but we ended up back in our hometown. With all of this traveling and moving, I was struggling to stay on track with our Sonlight program. And then, I had a new baby in the house. I just kept getting farther behind with our Sonlight science and chapter book reading. It frustrated me. I didn't like being behind schedule. I started to stress over it and that's not good.

So, I did what every new mother should do - I let the schedule go. It didn't matter that I was behind. I worked with J on her core subjects (Math, Language Arts, Bible) and then we decided to do our own Science units. We ended up doing a unit on the Solar System which J loved and learned so much. I didn't over plan. We read from thousand books from the library and worked on a notebook. She had a ball!

We did a unit on Geography. Again, not super planned. We worked through a core book that I found at a Goodwill and I added a large inflatable globe, a wall map, and the World Landmark Toobs. We created another notebook and J learned a lot. We read about each different Landmark and wrote about them for the notebook. She even created some with clay. Can learning get any better?

We learned about several composers and artists. We read books about their lives and listened to their music. We added them to our timeline and created a music/art notebook for them.

We worked through a unit on the body. We read a ton of books. I love living by the library! J worked on a model of her body as well as another notebook. She was grossed out at first but she came around - the body is amazing!

What I am saying is that you don't need a schedule to learn. Sure, we had a ton of books left (okay, not a ton but enough) for our Sonlight B + C Core but I had to let it go. I was tired of trying to finish on a schedule, jam packing everything in to get it done. I wanted to do the fun stuff. J did too. She said she missed the fun stuff. To tell the truth, so did I.

So, I brought back the fun stuff and if you ask her what was her favorite subject? She would say Science! Way to go! I love Sonlight. I do. I love the books that we receive each year but sometimes, I feel like I can become a slave to the schedule. I feel like I have to get it all done. But I don't. You don't either.

J learned without it. She probably learned more without the schedule. More that I expected. I love that. We read more books, even though they weren't the ones that came with the core. We had FUN! and we LEARNED!

I struggled when I was deciding what to do next year. I struggled because I love Sonlight but I wanted to do the fun things of learning. So, that's what we are going to do. We will be working on Core D but I will not be following the schedule like before. We will be reading about American History and doing fun things along the way.

And what about the rest of the chapter books and easy readers from Core B+C? Well, we are slowly reading through them this summer. Everyday, J picks an easy reader to read to me for practice and I read a chapter or two from our chapter books. So, we will be reading them -  just on our schedule:)

Tot Tuesday

Riley is trying new foods and I love to see his expressions when he does. One of his favorites is organic vanilla yogurt and some homemade pureed fruit. That is his go-to-breakfast.

He loves his yogurt! And he is fighting me for the spoon. What a sweetie!

Tot Tuesday

I recently found this mesh bag chewing toy for Riley. This is so cool! It enables him to try foods that would normally choke him but in a safe manner. I love it. So far, we have tried small oranges, watermelon (a favorite of his), ice cubes for teething, banana, limes, lemons, blueberries, and some peaches. This has been a great tool for Riley to learn how to feed himself as well as teethe.

He is such a happy boy! He loves watermelon and can't get enough of it. Thanks Grandpa!

Geography Unit

We finalized our Geography Unit! I was so glad that we took the time to include Geography in our school year. We learned about continents, countries, and even World Landmarks. It was just an overview of World Geography but it was enough to allow J to explore the world around her. If you have time, include some Geography in your school. It was well worth it. Our base book for the unit was My World by Ira Wolfman.

J practiced the names of the continents by putting together a World Puzzle. We did this several times to give her a feel of where the continents belong.

We read about continental drift and practiced putting the continents together to see how they might have fit. This free printable came from A Little Pinch of Perfect (link below).

She practiced labeling the continents. All these sheets will go into her Geography Notebook.

She worked through some continent notebook pages that I found from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom (link below). You can see her new pixie haircut that she absolutely loves.

I found this awesome felt map set from the Discovery Channel Toys. J labeled the continents and added the animals.

This is a finished product. I love this map. I technically bought it for her Science last year but it came in handy with this unit.

I love the World Landmark Toob miniatures. I found some printable cards which we added to the map.

J is working on her mapping. After she would learn about a certain landmark, she would add it to her map.

Using our World Atlas App for the iPad, we learned about several of the landmarks.

J would learn about each landmark and add it to her notebook page. She would draw a picture of it and write a fact about it. Also, while I was at the Dollar Store this week, I found flag stickers of a ton of countries. She is adding those to our map as well.

We both have learned a lot from this unit. My favorite was learning about the Moai Statues on Easter Island and then having the privilege of actually seeing one in person at the Smithsonian! We are hoping for a family trip to Washington D.C. this summer. We will see...

Take the time, if possible, to include Geography into your studies. We definitely learned a lot and it opened our eyes to the world around us. After we learned about the Moai Statues, we saw them everywhere! J was so excited when that happened (so was I) because it made the learning real to her. I didn't use a pre planned curriculum - just a core book, a globe, a map, and a few landmark miniatures. You can do this too :)


Links

Hippo Hooray for Second Grade - has a link to a youtube video for a song about the continents and oceans that she created.

My World by Ira Wolfman

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - free Globetrotters printable pack.

Worldsapart Geography Pinterest Board

A Little Pinch of Perfect - free continent printable.

Hands on Homeschooler - free printable 3 part cards for the World Landmark Toob.

Tot Tuesday

There is a running joke in my house about green beans....I have a strong dislike for green beans. I won't mention why but my kids know it. Now, I know that it is hereditary!

He's not so sure of this yucky green food....

Yeah, I don't think so! Ha! I will try them again later. I won't give up!

Human Body Unit - Kidneys, Spleen, Pancreas, and Cells

Before we left for Grandma's and Grandpa's, we worked through a quick over view of the kidneys, spleen, pancreas, and cells. Here are a few of the activities we did.

We started this week by reading/checking out as many resources as I can get my hands on from our personal library as well as the public library. She is working on her kidneys for her life-size human body.

She worked on a cell model. We read about all of the different parts and their functions. I didn't go into too much detail since she will be seeing this cell model again.

J colored a worksheet that explained the functions of the kidneys and spleen.

She learned about some of the different body cells and colored a chart which she added to her body chart.

She added her new body pieces to her chart. It is really coming along! I can't wait to see it finished. We are moving on to bones and muscles.

Links

Crayola - has the free printable cell coloring sheet that we will add to our human body notebook.

Dover Publications - free printable kidney coloring page for notebook.

If you are looking for the texts and printables that we are using, please visit our first post about our human body unit here.