My husband went trout fishing recently and brought home a nice catch of fish. The kids were ecstatic about the whole thing, and the oldest couldn’t wait for Daddy to clean them so that he could see a backbone.
(I was relieved that Daddy got to tackle this dissection since the oldest’s last obsession was to see the backbone of a dead frog he found. I got to do the honors with the frog.)
Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your stomach for such things—I did not get pictures of the event, but both of the big kids were very involved in the process and had a blast poking around with the fish waiting to be cleaned. So, after this major family affair, it seemed most natural to read about fish as part of our science lesson the next day. We read about fins and gills and swim bladders. Then we read about cartilage vs. bone, sharks, rays, and lampreys. My son absolutely couldn’t wait to notebook a page about sharks. And the kids have been going around ever since wiggling the tips of their noses and giggling about cartilage.
