Last week when we visited our local museum, I was excited to see just how much has changed and the new plans for the future.  The kids had a great time exploring all of the new exhibits.  In one of the areas, the museum provided handouts for each organ of the body.  The idea was to allow the kids to color the organs and then place them on a life-size outline of their body.  We didn't have time to do this at the museum so I asked the volunteer if we could take the handouts home.  They were more than happy to gather everything up and send it with us. We have finished our Science curriculum for the school year.  It is by far the favorite subject in our home, therefore, we NEVER have a school day without it.  Since, we have finished the actual curriculum, I am filling our science time with experiments and unit studies.  These organ handouts and activity were the perfect thing to add.  We can spend quite a bit of time discussing each organ, tracing each child's body on butcher paper, and then placing the organs in the correct locations.  I love it when I come across something like this - even better when it is free! :) We started working on the organs yesterday when it dawned on me how great it would be to see an actual organ.  Now, we don't really have any connections to getting our hands on human organs (that just sounds strange), but we can definitely get animals organs from our family owned meat market.  I called my husband and made one of my strangest requests to date, "Hi Honey, do you happen to have any cow hearts?" Don't you call your husband asking for cow hearts and various organs? No??? Hmmm, I thought that was normal! :)  Just so happens he did have a beef heart and told us to come on over.  The kids were beyond excited, so we quickly finished up our morning assignments and headed out the door. When we got there, my husband was a bit tied up and "Paw-Paw" (grandpa) caught wind of what we were up to.  He jumped right in and gave the kids quite a lesson on beef heart.  The kids were practically elbow deep in heart.  I was shocked that they weren't grossed out and then a bit disturbed that they were enjoying it so much. :)  At the end, my husband was able to show the kids a cow liver.  We were shocked at how large it was.  It weighed 10 lbs!  We received quite the education, that is for sure! Here are the pictures from our outing.  The image quality is not great since I was using my phone and trying to balance on my tiptoes in order to get pictures from above.  Anyway, you will get the idea. :) *Warning - If you have a squeamish tummy these photos may not be for you.  You've been warned! :)