Monday, May 4, 2009

Human Anatomy

It never would have occurred to me to teach a 2 year old human anatomy.  Of course I taught her things like fingers and eyes and such, but I didn't think about expanding this into internal organs or anything.  A couple of months ago I was at the local children's museum, and in one of the rooms they have play x-rays of the skeletal system that kids can put on an x-ray reading screen and "read" under the light, and various diagrams of the human muscles and bones.  There was a 4 year old boy and his 2 year old sister, and I was astounded that they were identifying and naming things like the skull by looking at an x-ray picture.  And they were loving it.  So I showed my daughter a few of the things.  She thought the "patella" (I don't even know how to spell it) was a fun name for the knee cap and has really remembered that.  Well, I'm 9 months pregnant, and I have a little kids book someone let me borrow that shows the process of a baby growing in mommy's tummy and then coming out.  Probably in part because she is enamored with the idea that a baby is about to come out of me, she is really interested in the book.  I started using the real name for the different things in the pictures - like, umbilical cord, placenta, uterus, etc.  And she has really picked it up.  We've done joints, veins and arteries, and some other things like that, too.  I am constantly amazed what kids this age are capable of learning.  I guess it make sense.  She is actually eager to build vocabulary at this stage.

2 comments:

Momtotwo said...

I am pregnant right now as well, though not nearly as far along. I was showing my daughter some real life pictures of a forming baby both online and in a book like that at the chiropractor's office. She really enjoyed it as well! I love your idea of showing her pictures of the human body inside since she already knows all the outside parts. I'm always wondering what ELSE I can be teaching her at this tender age of 2. Seems like there are only ideas for homeschooling kids from 4 on up. We're going to go to the library and find a good book to get us started-thanks!

Momtotwo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.