The Homeschool Normal & Dissections

Sometimes the life of our homeschool family doesn't seem so normal...especially when I read facebook.  Monday as i was checking FB, I read things about people going shopping, cleaning their houses, watching movies, etc...and my fb status was "eye cow dissection in progress!"
LOL.  At times like this, our lives are glaringly NOT normal...but I love it!   And, if I don't check fb, the usual goings-on here are perfectly normal & ordinary...my HS mom friends would all agree.  So, back to the business at hand.  My oldest daughter is in 10th grade & is doing a veterinary science curriculum that we got from Cornell University for FREE (worth $200) through 4H.  The public schools around here are using it, too.  The cool thing is one of Hannah's best friends, Danielle, is also doing it with her.  Danielle goes to ps, but she wanted to do this with Hannah.  These two both want to be vets & this curriculum is so up their alley, it's not even funny.  They do work on their own at homes & get together almost every week to study or do projects.  They're both highly motivated...and also getting ready for 4H hippology & 4H public presentations, too, together.  
Unit 4 required that they do some dissections-of a sheep brain, sheep lung & fetal pig.  I also happened to have a cow eye in formadehyde, so we decided to do that, too.  I did order an extra cow eye along with the rest, plus dissection guides & a dissection tray & kit.  I got all this from Home Science Tools .  My most fave science supply store!  They also send out an awesome newsletter with fun & education science projects for kids if you subscribe, which I do!
So, the girls had spent 5 weeks doing unit 4 & were ready.  Danielle had school off Monday, so they spent the whole day doing this.  We had the wood stove going in the pole barn & they did it all out there so my house wouldn't get all stinked up-lol.  Before each specimen, they'd read the dissection guide, look at virtual dissections on the computer & watch youtubes of dissections.  After each specimen they'd go over the dissection guide questions.  They were very dedicated & even did more work than was required.  I'm SO proud of them!  All I did was help them find some of the resources they used on the computer & put the blade on the scalpel.  They totally own this educational experience-they did it all themselves-the best way!

I had to snap this pic.  They were getting ready to do the cow eyes & eating snacks that were sitting right next to the cow eyes-no weak stomachs here-lol.  Incidentally, the eye in the jar came from a friend's farm-when one of their cows died, he & my dh dug it out.  yup-pretty gross, I know. 

 I'm so glad I bought an extra eye.  They cut the first eye the wrong way & as a result, didn't find the lens.  The next eye they found the lens on, which was pretty cool.  They took turns-one of them dissected while the other took notes & then vice versa. 
Here's the sagittal cut of the sheep brain compared with the picture from the dissection guide:

Here's the fetal pig.  I'm not posting much of that actual dissection-I don't want to disturb anyone that might be squeamish. If you're interested & want them, I can send you pics.

 Earlier in the day this wooden table had been used for car parts when my husband & his friend, Jay, were doing vehicle repairs. ;)

Jonah was their assistant & photographer.  Danielle actually has more pics on her iphone than I have on my camera.  They're going to put together a public presentation-demonstration on dissecting a cow eye and their going to put together a portfolio to have judged in the veterinary science division of the 4H county fair & hopefully the state fair.

You didn't know that our state of the art laboratory featured a tractor & all sorts of things left over from building our house, did you?  ;) The two lovely scientists:

After they were all done, it was time for air hugs since their gloves were kind of yucky! :)

I wish I had a picture of this...Susanna provided comedy to our science adventures by confiscating a pair of the blue gloves & running around the house with them on her feet.  The gloves were slapping on the floor & she yelled, "I'm a blue-footed booby!"  Hannah ran after her & wanted to know where she got that pair from.  Apparently she got them out of the wagon in the barn-and they had been used...so she yelled, get those off your feet!  After washing up her & my floor, I thought to myself, "just another feature a highschool student wouldn't experience in the average lab. LOL
And a feature that my house experienced that the average house does not is me making soup with a lung & trachea on my counter(in vac-sealed bag) while giving Susanna a spelling quiz.  And when I went to switch the laundry, I found the remains of the sheep brain under a jacket on the washer.  That's just not normal!  I supposed "normalcy" got kicked to the curb several years ago! 
Here's a cozy picture of Hannah & Danielle in from of the wood stove in the barn going over all the dissections of the day.  Look at that huge binder full of info!   I just love how much they're loving this curriculum.  

 Danielle was hoping to have a snow day the next day so she could come back over so they could do the lung & trachea.  She told Hannah to wear her pajamas inside out & put cotton balls in the toes of her socks to insure a snow day. For fun, Hannah wore her pajamas inside out, but couldn't find the cotton balls.  No snow day.  Later on, I found the cotton balls not where they should be, which is the bathroom, but in the craft drawer in the homeschool room, of course!  haha!  Isn't that where everyone keeps them?  :) :)