Teaching the nervous system (brain, spinal cord and neurons/nerve cells)

Science has been going great at our house. We started the science part of our homeschooling experience by reviewing what she already knew about planets, because she felt her school didn't focus enough on the subject. I shared a few fun videos I had found online, she colored some handouts, we learned facts about each planet in our solar system, and finally, Isabella did a short report on her favorite planet, Neptune. If it wasn't for the pandemic, we would have driven to the Air & Space Museum in DC. Unfortunately, we will have to table that field trip for another day (month? next year?)

After "Planets," we moved onto learning about cell structures (animal and plant cells). I continued the unit with having her label the parts of a cell, complete some worksheets, and then complete a short 8-question quiz that I found online that asked questions regarding to the functions of each part of a cell. She passed it with 100% accuracy so I knew it was time to move on.

Isabella has been wanting to learn about the brain since we decided to homeschool her. I told her we needed to first go through the rest of her 5th grade curriculum before introducing her to the nervous system. But now that she had mastered the basics of cells, it seemed like a good time to talk about the body, especially since I have also been teaching her Health "class."

I found a fantastic and short YouTube video that helps kids understand what part of the brain does what. I liked that it was a hands-on video, and Isabella was able to learn the concepts pretty quickly. I had traced the above picture of the brain diagram the night before, so I had Isabella label each part on the picture, and then write one fact or detail about each lobe.

After dinner, I made a quick power point presentation on the spinal cord using information I found on Google and Spinal Cord Lesson for Kids. I'll be sharing the power point with her tomorrow morning before my staff meeting (yes, I am working remotely while home schooling). After my power point (and hopefully before my meeting), I will show her how she can make a replica of a spinal cord using an egg carton. Once that is done, I would like to review the basics of neuron function using some colored playdoh and some other activities I found on this science homeschooling blog.

Once the basic overview of the nervous system is completed (brain, spinal cord and nerves), I am planning to return to the brain diagram and focus on each lobe with Isabella. I came across a really resourceful homeschooling blog when I was looking for a printable of The Stroop Effect. For those of you who aren't familiar with The Stroop Effect, I invite you to read the words below, and when you are done, go back and say the color you see instead of the word:

Basically, The Stroop Effect causes two conflicting signals to occur in the anterior cingulate region of the brain (between the right and left halves of the frontal portion of the brain). The Stroop Effect is a great way to show how the brain processes words and colors differently.

In any case, during my search for the printable, I came across the resourceful homeschooling blog that I linked above. The author shared several other activities that I am now planning to do to demonstrate different functions of the brain and go into more details in regards to each lobe and the neurons.

I am looking forward to some fun activities for Isabella to do!

Update: Here is Isabella's completed replica! (and we finished before my staff meeting started!)

Art

Art has been a large part of our homeschooling experience. Initially, before the pandemic hit, we had planned to travel to Canada and spend time in Toronto. My husband's family is from Montreal, but he grew up in Ontario, and always loved visiting Toronto.

We had planned to stay in the Entertainment District, and since I had already planned to homeschool Isabella before we had scheduled the trip, I had looked into the art galleries within walking distance.

Vincent Meessen had an exhibit at the Toronto's Power Plant (art gallery) called Blues Klair, which was based on his previous immersive film installation Ultramarine. He used the color blue to heighten the experience as he delved through the history of self-exiled African-American poet Gylan Kain, whose performances in the late 1960s were a primary influence on the development of rap.

In order to fully understand how the spoken word can be used in art, I had Isabella find an art piece and write a story based on it. First, she had to spend several minutes simply writing details of the piece, such as color, missing parts to it, number of items, etc. Then, she wrote a story based on it. Since the art piece she chose was a golden brooch, she wrote a story of a young boy who was commissioned to create it. Then, we looked back at the brooch and talked about it again, using her story. I think it really helped her understand how art can be multi-modal.

From there, we moved on to colors. How do colors create feelings in the viewer? There are a lot of videos out there that explain how colors are used in the media and art.

Isabella's favorite color is blue. So I decided to have Isabella create an art piece using color to convey a message while also using written language. Initially, Isabella wanted to do a haiku, however after some time studying a variety of different types of poems, she chose to instead to a lyrical piece. Her art project is called "A Battle for Peace." I am really looking forward to her finished piece once it is completed.

Speaking of words, and in the theme of written language, a good friend of mine suggested I write a journal to document this time period of our life.

Here's what I have so far:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
my children decided they hated my cooking and asked to order food daily.
I wanted to kill my husband for breathing.
The dogs were happy.

Homeschooling

Sometimes schools want to fit children into a box instead of looking at them as the actual individuals that they are. We ended up pulling our daughter out of public school in the middle of fourth grade because of some significant bullying issues and the school's inability to respond appropriately. Our daughter has an anxiety disorder, and the bullying not only made the situation worse, but the school's horrible decision practices and responses to it made the environment unsafe for her to continue.

We moved her into a K-12 private school that boasted using the Mindful Curriculum and keeping their class sizes small. Our wallet took an enormous hit, but it was worth it for our daughter's mental health.

Unfortunately, when 5th grade started, her anxiety increased. Whereas the elementary school focused on mindfulness, it seemed to be less so in their middle school. The small class size seemed to cause more anxiety instead of lessen it as well. It got to the point that my darling daughter was unable to access all the strategies she had learned to cope and survive her anxiety. We knew a change needed to happen.

We decided that she needed a reset.

Our daughter would begin home schooling on April 1st of this school year. The three weeks would give both my husband and I enough time to plan, organize and create a curriculum that would challenge her (she loves to learn) while also making sure she could prepare to return to a classroom setting in the fall.

Life is funny sometimes though because starting tomorrow all schools in our state will be closed for two weeks due to the coronavirus. So our daughter will begin her homeschooling tomorrow instead. It will definitely be easier to implement with both my husband and I being home for the next two weeks.

I will spend some time sharing what I've learned and my experiences homeschooling my daughter on this blog. I hope for those who are interested in home schooling their child while also working full time can learn from my own experiences. Wish us luck!