Wednesday, November 2, 2011

So smug about my skeleton....

For the past year, I have been shopping for a skeleton.  We want to study anatomy you see, but a good, scientific skeleton at a grassroots homeschooling family's price is hard to come by.

So I got smug, and figured that around Halloween time, I could just get a decoration skeleton that would suit our needs fine enough.

So here I present "George" to you:




He looked just fine for our needs.  The $35 price was right.  He even glows in the dark, making for spooky folly when we turn the lights out for the night.  He has a skull hook for hanging.  His joints can lock in place for posing.

We love him!  He's just a bit taller than Daughter.  We began studying the bones.  We got stretchy, exercise theraband to make muscles, and figured out their attachments and actions on the bones.

But then one day....I noticed something peculiar....



Wait a minute.....those fibulas are on the inside of the lower legs- they should be on the outside!!!



and shouldn't the radius be on the thumb side of the hand, and the ulna on the pinky side?

George's lower legs and arms were put on backwards!!!!!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!


So that's what a $35 skeleton will buy you!  Oh well, no matter- we just took him apart, and fixed him.....




A pair of pliers and a screwdriver did the trick......



..and one of Dad's files to sand down the articular surfaces of the knees- because his knees wouldn't straighten when attached to his femurs on the correct side....

Oh yes- we soon discovered that our fix presented us with another problem- now his feet were on backwards!  We took him apart at the ankle joints too, and switched his feet.



There...all fixed up!




Now George is pigeon-toed, and weak in the knees, but we love him anyway.

The fix-up also helped the kids to learn the alignment of the lower leg and forearm bones too.  Radius/ulna, tibia/fibula identification can be tricky.  All Halloween season, they checked every decorative skeleton we saw, to make sure the bones were put on/drawn properly.

(-:

Happy Halloween!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome George! We can tell he's a boy by his pelvis, his eyebrow ridge, and his lantern jaw. It looks like he's missing some small bones, but he'll definitely do. I love your kids' expressions for the camera, too!!

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  2. Great continued observations about George's gender, TL! Did yo happen to catch The Happy Scientist's skeleton video this past week, about telling gender and other things about a skeleton? (-:

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