Claire has really enjoyed reading The Magic School Bus: The Search for the Missing Bones, a stocking stuffer from Santa this past Christmas. We have read this chapter book several times, and each time she pays keen attention to the various notes and diagrams about the human skeleton. She seems to enjoy the diagrams more than the story itself. She has lots of questions and is just curious about people’s bones. I had told her we would get out a replica human skeleton that Kit has around somewhere… just as soon as we could find it.

Today Claire stumbled upon this skeleton, wrapped carefully in bubble wrap, in a cabinet downstairs, behind a coin cup that I use almost every day (of course!). Claire was really excited when we unwrapped it and set it up on its stand. She quickly dressed it in plastic jewelry and gave it a plastic purse to hold onto. She also took a scientific interest in the skeleton. She repeatedly and carefully counted the vertebrae in this skeleton’s backbone. It usually comes out to 15, but sometimes comes to as many as 17 by her count. ( The “real” answer is 33. Maybe she is counting 2 as 1?) She is also particularly interested in the rib cage and its relationship to the heart and stomach.

Then it is back to letting her Littlest Pet Shop toys crawl around the skeleton and sleep in his mouth or look for his missing heart. (She has also been watching The Wizard of Oz.)