Circulatory System

We are in the process of learning about the most wonderful piece of machinery ever made–the human body. I’m not going to share every single thing that we’ve studied, but I want to share with you the part that we just finished–our heart and our circulatory system. We should all take some time to learn about our hearts and how to keep them healthy, after all the Bible says: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11.

We found some fun resources for studying about our circulation. We watched a very good DVD: "Red River of Life" from the Moody Science Classics. It was made a long time ago, but it truly is a classic. We watched it several times and every time were amazed by the things we learned. On it We got to watch a real heart being pumped and see how the blood rushes in and out. We love the Moody Science Videos. We always learn amazing things when we watch them.

We found a couple of really neat websites from wikipedia. The first one, The Virtual Heart, has a 3-D model that you can manipulate. You can twist it any direction you want and you can even take it apart so that you can learn the different parts of the heart as pieces and learn their names. The second one, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, has an animation where you can see how the blood is pumped through the heart. It is a simple diagram and easy to understand even for young minds. If you have a few minutes to just learn a little about how your heart works, I highly recommend taking a look at those two sites. They’re just really great.

Nothing excites my children like hands-on activities. Their favorite for the study of the heart was using a stethoscope. First they listened to my heart to see if I was alive. They weren’t sure. Then they listened to themselves. They were definitely alive! (Maybe because they weren’t wearing heavy sweaters.) Then they submitted the puppy to a thorough heart examine. She had to roll over and let each one of them, even the toddler, listen to her heart. She’s alive too!

We also found a few fun songs about the heart. Two of them were from a CD called Janice’s Attic Songs for Kids. This CD has several health related songs as well as songs about obedience, thoughtfulness, dependability and many more important characteristics that we all want to teach our children. Here is a video of the kids  singing along with the CD.