I've waited five grueling long years as my oldest has trekked up the grades until now she has neared fifth grade. So it was time- glorious time- to purchase... to get.... finally... the microscope!! Eee!
We got a good microscope that should last us all the way through high school biology. It has 4x, 10x, 40x, and 100x objectives and an LED light.
I also got a microslide viewer which is similar to a viewfinder toy, except has the look and shape of a microscope. You buy long slides with 6 images- photos of professional slides, usually in a theme. The one I got was basic histology for the human body- pretty much an example on the cellular level of each body organ. I'm hoping that the microslide viewer, at only $10.50, is a suitable distraction for the two little kids while we use the real one. The perk of this set is that the slides can be seen on the regular microscope.
In addition, there are nearly 50 slides to choose from, at about $8 each. I purchased 3 sets of "real" slides from Delta Science and Education. Here's a LINK to their list of slides. I got the shapes of bacteria set, the invertebrates, and the protists. Also from them I ordered "plastic depression slides." We live near a pond! So excited!
List of Rainbow Resource's microscope choices.
I love biology and microscopes, cellular biology, in particular. I wrote a post detailing our microscope purchase. I wanted to let you follow this link (Teachers' Domain) to a short Quicktime video about single-celled organisms.
I had recently seen a great short animated video showing the bustling activity in a cell that I wanted to share with you. David Bolinsky, a medical animator, said that cells are the "envy of nanotechnologists" in their abilities and irreducible wonder. The video doesn't have any voice-over, but would be nice to play while you turn off the music and read to your kids about the complexity of the cell and how amazing it is that God created it so well, to behave so efficiently.
Here's a Discovery Channel video showing (with narration) the DNA replication and formation of a protein.
I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum! Teresa (Tracy) Dear