A Simple Way to Teach the Digestive System

In our home on Mondays, my husband Shane teaches our daughter (A) her lessons. He mainly tackles the different aspects of science, and today he focused on the digestive system. This week’s lesson was centered around the functions of the mouth.

National Geographic has a fantastic interactive video called Down the Hatch, that shows the mouth and its parts up close. You can click on each function (salivary glands, teeth, tongue, hard and soft palate, uvula, and epiglottis) and get a detailed description of what each does, and how it works.

Also on National Geographic, another interactive video where you can “Feed the System,” and actually feed the human body a piece of bread, a steak, a head of broccoli, and a cupcake. This video shows all of the actions that the human body goes through, from the first bite to  its exit.

Shane took the lesson a step further by making a plate that included food from each of the food groups. He had A take a bite of each food, and focus on the processes that her mouth was going through as she ate. Then, they discussed what each piece of food would do to her body.

For parents, this is an easy and fun way to teach your children about the digestive system. The NG website is very detailed in describing the different aspects of the digestive system, so you do not need any extra background information.

This is also a great way to teach kids how eating healthy foods makes their bodies grow, and possibly encourage them to try new foods. And that is something we can ALL benefit from, right?!

*This post is not intended to promote National Geographic in any way. It is simply to share a fun and interactive way to teach the digestive system to your children. There are no affiliate links in this post, nor am I in any way associated with National Geographic.*

You can find the photo of the digestive system on Wikipedia.org