31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bones, Muscles and Joints--As Well As the Digestive & Circulatory Systems, June 8, 2007
This review is from: The Magic School Bus - Human Body (DVD)
I homeschool (unschool) my son, and the Magic School Bus series is GREAT for teaching kids science. We have 4 DVD sets and a few VHS's.
If you're unfamiliar with the premise, the central characters are Ms. Frizzle (a teacher), her class, Liz the lizard and the Bus. Ms. Frizzle takes her class on crazy field trips, where Bus--and sometimes the kids!--experience a transformation so they can get closer to the action. (For example, become a bee or turning into water droplets.)
One of our most recent purchases was The Human Body and it's excellent as always. These three episodes cover various aspects of the human body:
*For Lunch - The digestive system
*Inside Ralphie - The circulatory system
*Flexes Its Muscles - Bones, Muscles and Joints
There is also a peek inside Map of the Human Body for kids to explore.
This CD runs about 80 minutes and is supposedly geared towards children 3-8. Personally, I think the age-appropriate range is more like 6-10 because of the complex concepts introduced.
However, if younger kids enjoy it--more power to them! It certainly can't hurt to introduce science to younger kids if the Magic School Bus holds their interest.
My 8-year old son really enjoys the series now (he didn't get into it when he was younger), so I use the Magic School Bus series to supplement our learning/experimenting with science principles. And, my son seems to love The Human Body; in fact, he's watching it right now!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beware - these are NOT new episodes, December 7, 2005
This review is from: The Magic School Bus - Human Body (DVD)
Beware - these are NOT new episodes, just new to DVD. The shows included are "For Lunch", "Inside Ralphie", and "Flexes Its Muscles". The episodes are excellent, as ever. And you can select English, French, or Spanish.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the one I was waiting for!, October 23, 2005
This review is from: The Magic School Bus - Human Body (DVD)
This DVD contains several of my favorites including For Lunch and Inside Ralphie. The trips through the human body are great for small children. I'm less thrilled with the Robot Ralphie episode... they always do the segment at the end that clarifies things that had to be simplified to do the show. In general, this works well. However, the Robot Ralphie episode dives into the skeleton, muscles/tendons, but ignores the brain's role in motion. Normally, I can buy into the things they omit for the sake of finishing the lesson, but this one was way too big of an omission for me, and I spent quite a while with my 4yr old talking about how a toaster is not a suitable "brain" for a robot, but a computer could be. Putting the brain as a "footnote" in the end segment didn't seem appropriate to me.
Overall though, a pleasure to watch as usual. The first two episodes more than make up for my annoyance with the third. The kids love them.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
