It’s no secret that I stay far, far away from homeschool projects that involve messy stuff like dye, test tubes, mud, glitter, explosions, etc. It’s not that I expect my kids to miss the experience, but I hire that kind of stuff out to other homeschool moms. The ones who enjoy it and can do it with a smile on their face. The ones who won’t cause tears… theirs or their kids.
But sadly we now live in a place where I don’t know who these moms are yet. And I so much want to be a “fun mom” whose kids enjoy manage the school day without much complaint. So I went out on a limb and bought a dissection kit. Four critters. FOUR. I was feeling pretty guilty, wasn’t I?
We started with an earthworm, then moved on to a grasshopper and crayfish. The worm went great, and coupled with an online video, we saw and learned a lot. The next two, those buggers with their hard exoskeletons, were much more difficult and ended up pretty much mangled before were finished with them.
Finally we got to the bullfrog. It was quite large, and a little too life-like for Savannah who sat back and let her brother perform the dissection. Emery thought it was cool and I was glad he took an interest, but at one point I thought he crossed into some shady territory when he was finding a little too much enjoyment in dismembering the poor thing.
And that’s when we called it quits. They each learned some new things and I performed my homeschool science duty by providing a lesson on dissection. Whew! Glad that’s over. Bring on the books!!!!
