Exploring Anatomy

Somewhat less controversial than Bapu the skeleton, but no less fun, this anatomically correct jigsaw proved a fantastic way of learning the bones of the hand.

Beware - it's harder than it looks to fit all those iddy biddy bones into that wrist!

According to Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, there are 206 bones in a fully grown adult, and 106 of them are in the hands and feet alone. I did not realise that. Wow! You should be able to count 27 in the hand above if you count carefully.

Some of you were interested to hear how we are finding this book. You will be aware that I am wary about their suitability for inclusion in our Charlotte Mason style of schooling, and that it was with much trepidation that I began this book this term owing to Jemimah's great interest in the subject matter.

As it turns out, we're loving it. It is exactly what we were looking for. It is interesting, and the practical experiments are fun. That said, at the end of Term One - twelve weeks worth - we have only finished Chapter 2. These are not living books, they're text books written in a chatty, conversational tone, and to learn and remember their densely packed content takes time. Every page or two Fulbright includes narration prompts written in blue ink. One or two of these sections and the accompanying exercises is enough for us during a lesson. We read, we narrate and we're done. We are only doing a limited number of the notebooking exercises - those that we can use as written narration exercises, really. I guess in some ways I've been using the book as a spine to help me to cover all the topics that need to be covered. From there we turn to YouTube and our library shelves for appropriate accompanying material. The Khan Academy videos about cells, for example, were useful.

AO includes the Exploring Creation series as alternatives to their regular curriculum for years 3-6. To me the regular curriculum is far closer to what Miss Mason would have recommended, and it is what I would prefer to be doing. That said, going at the pace we are, this book is serving its purpose very well. I'm just not sure that I want to be covering human anatomy and physiology for the next three years.

Have you used these books successfully in a Charlotte Mason setting? How did you do it? Have you used something that you thought was better? Please share!