Dissection 101

You know you might be a homeschooler if you have a gopher in your refrigerator and a biologist coming over to dissect it with your five year old.

Delaney has been DYING to assess her potential surgical skills and cut something open. She confessed a month or so ago that she had been refraining from "slicing her stuffed animal open because she wanted to see what it felt like to be a surgeon". I thanked her for her restraint and started looking at dissection kits. I told a new friend about it during a conversation about our daughters. As it turned out, she happened to be a biologist, and said that if our cat ever brought home a good specimen, she would be more than happy to come over and help us dissect it.

One more reason I love Flagstaff. Scientists all around us.

Delaney had a little talk with our cat, and sure enough, last Wednesday we found a little creature in our back yard that wasn't too maimed. I sheepishly emailed a picture of what turned out to be a gopher to my friend, and asked if she would really like to come over, to which she graciously replied, "yes!"

Delaney was bursting with excitement. I wasn't sure how she would react when Lorena really cut the guy open, and we talked about it a little bit, but she had no doubt that it was going to be AWESOME. Sophie opted to stay upstairs with Hailey and watch a movie.

We went in search of tools and a dissection book (the guy's face at Bookman's was kind of priceless when we told him what we needed it for), and waited in anticipation for Friday to come.

Lorena was amazing. She carefully disassembled the gopher, talking with Delaney and her daughter about all of the organs, etc.

 

 

 

The girls weren't grossed out at all. Delaney even got to take a turn with the scalpel. Later, she said that using the scalpel and seeing the heart and intestines were her favorite parts.

 

This is my favorite picture. Love that look of concentration.

 

 

 

They looked at skin and muscles and parts of the face.

 

 

 

 

Lorena left Delaney an extra scalpel for the next time she finds a good subject. Delaney is so proud to have her very own. I did put it on a high shelf though...she's a little too independent and adventurous to have those within reach.

Later that evening, Cullen found a pan on the stove with tweezers in it.

"Honey, what are the tweezers doing in here?"

"Oh, we had to sterilize them after we used them to take the gopher's eyeballs out."

He just shook his head. "Of course. Why wouldn't that be the answer in  this house?" ;)