My kids found out a week ago that the middle schoolers in our homeschool group had dissected a pig, a frog and an eyeball this year. “What is dissecting?”, they asked. When I explained it to them, it became apparent that this is something we will need to partake in sooner, rather than later.
This is why homeschool groups are so great. Some parents get into science and labs and dissecting, and the smell of formaldehyde wafting through their living room doesn’t bother them in the least.
I am not that parent.
I am the parent who drops off for science projects and runs an errand. I am the parent who pays for art class and sits quietly in the back reading a book. I am the parent who will foster and encourage (most of) my children’s interests, but if it’s messy or smelly, it ain’t happenin’ at my house.
But then sometimes, an opportunity presents itself.
Thanks to a prowling cat, an unsuspecting baby rabbit, and an apparently underfed puppy dog, we were able to get a glimpse of the organs we studied in anatomy earlier this year.
I’ll spare you a picture.
Amazingly though, it was very clean. Lady did a great job with her canines of getting rid of the fur, extracting the stomach and large intestine, and she even removed only one side of the bunny’s face, leaving the eye completely in tact but also completely exposed for viewing purposes.
Kudos, Lady!
As horrified as I was when I realized what she was gnawing on in our front yard, it turned into a terrific science lesson as we grabbed a stick and poked around the furry carcass. We saw the heart inside the ribcage, the small intestine, and the spine. We talked about whether it was a boy or girl (which is still unknown to me, but they have their opinions!). We could see the teeth and a lot of perfectly shaped muscles that looked like they came right out of the pages of a text book.
Very cool. And the best part? It was not in my house (unlike last week when the same dog brought a half eaten cardinal into my kitchen and laid it on the floor… OF MY KITCHEN… but that’s a story for another time… or not!). Emery disposed of the remains for me and now we are happily working in the schoolroom which is free from any colorless, toxic, or potentially carcinogenic gasses.
I’d say that this school day was a successful one.
