The human body is an amazing machine. It’s fascinating how everything works together to keep us going. Children love to learn about how their own bodies work, but it can be a complex study. Enter Human Body Factivities.
We received a package in the post earlier this month from Parragon Publishing that contained a surprise for the children. When they opened it up on a rainy afternoon, Human Body Factivities was waiting for them inside.
The box contains a plastic model to put together, along with a soft cover, full-colour, 128-page book full of facts and activities that is sure to keep keen kids interested and learning.
The first thing the kids did was to try to put the skeleton together. This was somewhat frustrating for them as it turns out the structure is actually quite difficult to get the pieces together, and some of the pieces don’t stay together very well (we solved the problem of the lower arm falling off with a little whitetak. (this is an affiliate link, as are links that follow)
The skeleton information in the book was a bit disappointing as it uses the ‘common’ names for body parts, such as collar bone, jaw bone, thigh bone, etc. Children will already be familiar with these terms, so it would have been great to introduce kids to the technical terms (clavicle, mandible, femur). But perhaps that’s just my love of anatomy and homeschooling mom voice kicking in.
The book has fun illustrations, and is a good mix of comic-style illustrations with facts included in the scenes, mixed with activities such as drawing, writing, mazes, and even directions to make your own scab on a banana! (there is an answer key at the back of the book as well).
Some of the fun facts that kids will enjoy are:
- people fart more as they age
- the sweat glands on your hands help you to hold onto things
- there can be up to a million white blood cells in a drop of blood
Kallista was so excited to get in and learn that she took out her doctor scrubs for the occasion. And since then she’s been giving the whole family check ups! Sparking curiosity in science at such a young age is just fantastic!
The Amazing Human Body book is a great introduction to human anatomy for children. We’ll be using it as a starting point to learning more about the body. When the children show a articular interest in an area, we can then research deeper into it through various means.
In the meantime, I may have to top-up Kallista’s doctor kit so she can provide better diagnoses!
