L has been eagerly anticipating the reproductive system, me not so much. That is until I found this fantastic activity on Highhill Homeschool's blog
L and I have talked in some detail about how babies are made since she was 4 but this time we went into way more detail. We read a great book on the reproductive system by Steve Parker and L asked questions as we read and discussed. There were some interesting moments but we got through them.
The next day we were ready to make to models. We used a small plastic ziploc bag for the uterus with two pieces of tubing taped to the sides for fallopian tubes. The glass candle holders are ovaries and inside L made tiny clay eggs. I cut a hole in the middle of the bottom of the bag to insert the pink straw representing the vagina. The green tape is the cervix.
For the male parts we used a syringe for the penis, two small cups for the testicles with yellow food colouring representing semen. The red string is for the epidermis and the tubing is the vas deferens.
Now for the re-enactment. We started off at the beginning of the cycle with the uterus menstruating. L poured red coloured water into the top of the uterus(bag). We stared counting and when we got to day 14 L took an egg from the ovary and put it into the top of one of the fallopian tubes. As it rolled down we kept counting until day 28 when she added more red liquid. She went through the cycle several more times and then decided to try and make a baby.
This time at day 14 after she had released the egg into the fallopian tube she used her syringe to insert the semen into the vagina. We kept counting and at day 28 instead of having menstruation the liquid turned orange which meant the egg was fertilized there was a baby.
We didn't have a tiny baby so we used a tiny dinosaur instead. After counting nine months the baby came out of the womb down the vagina and was born. L really enjoyed this process and made a baby several times.
I have to say I really loved how this got down to the nitty gritty of how it all works while still staying very "scientific". L has such a great understanding of both the male and female systems and the roles they play in reproduction.
