homeschool first weeks

We are starting a new curriculum called KONOS this year. I like it because it incorporates all ages in the subjects of Bible, Science, Social Studies,History, Art, Music.Our first weeks we have been studying Cooperation (it's a character based unit study), and focusing on the human anatomy and physiology ( how the systems cooperate).

 

For skin we examined our skin cells, made ourselves sweat, examined our hair roots and fingernails, talked about our friend Pablo who was born without epidermis and how that affected his short life (he died at age 9).

 

For bones we drew pictures of people without bones, and made clay people with no bones, made a skeleton out of magnetix using joint magnets. Really fun.

 

For muscles we examined steak and did an experiment involving paper towel rolls, rubber bands and balloons.

 

For digestive system (our favorite) we did eating experiments, observed our saliva and timed our digestive process by eating Captain Crunch dye cereal (too gross to explain but use your imagination). We "digested" mashed potatoes through a balloon esophagus attached to a straw (the small intestines). We took rope and measured 30 feet of intestines and placed them inside our shirt to image how compact our intestines really are.

 

For circlulatory system we made the arteries and veins out of clay and attached them to a clay heart, with aorta, vena cava, lungs and all. We found out that if you attach every blood vessel in your body, it would circle the earth 2 1/2 times!

 

For respiratory we did some balloon experiments and we checked our respiratory and pulse rate at rest and exercise, to understand the relation between our circulatory/respiratory system and the demand for oxygen from our muscles. We (mom) also donated blood and the kids got to be a part of that.

 

We studied Antony Van Leewenkoek, the Dutch sailor who first saw microscopic life. We understand the importance of his discovery. Before the microscope there was no way to diagnose many illnesses. We have been having fun with our microscope, and we examined pus yesterday. The cells we think we saw were red blood cells, white blood cells, skin cells and bacteria. Next week we will collect pond water from Uncle Bob's pond and look for amoebas or paramecia or other types of protozoa. That should be fun!

 

Check back periodically to find out what else we are doing.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com