Caution--sensitive material

This morning I got up and found Sarah on my computer playing a game. She found the game at school, where they have educational websites listed. The site is called "Edheads."
"Mom, you can do surgery on people with this game! It's so fun!"
I totally had to check this one out.

So we are doing a virtual total knee replacement on a 72 year old man. First we check the vital signs. Then we knock him out and prep the leg with iodine and drapes. You have to choose the correct answers in a series of questions along the way.
Next comes the drawing on the knee and the cutting, where the fatty tissue is revealed (this is all in animated form.) Nathaniel comes in to check it out.

After some drilling, sawing, hammering and screwing we close him up. Sarah said the stiching was the hardest part. I told her she was using the wrong end of the curvy needle. After that it went much faster and Sarah finished up her operation with staples.

Nathaniel--"That would hurt so bad when you woke up." I'm glad my child is still sensitive to the feelings of an animated man.
The animated doctor who has been our guide then says, "Good job! Are you sure this is your first total knee replacement?" Yep, we're pretty sure, but then again, some people are just gifted.

Following our "surgery", we are presented with a series of actual pictures of the real procedure. Sarah and Nathaniel say it's disgusting, but of course this does nothing to encourage them to stop staring at the screen with rapt attention.
Sarah, "They're using a fork! Awesome!"

She tells me that in the computer lab there are conflicting opinions about this learning site and while one teacher thinks it is fine, the other one thinks it needs to be taken off the list because it is "inappropriate."
For myself, I'm pretty liberal in these areas. I think it is fine. I do wonder however, what we kids who grew up with the game "Operation" would have thought. (I, for one, think I would have been into it.)

Bodyworld is here in Salt Lake and we are all psyched to see it. Rebecca has a special interest in the plasticated dead babies. She clearly remembers going to a museum three years ago where they had a display of fetuses in jars at different stages of development. (The museum made a point of saying that all were severely malformed and died of natural causes--which was evident.)

I read a book this summer called, "STIFF The Secret Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach. I was delighted to hear that someone else in my Brit Lit class had read it too. It is amazing the information and uses for cadavers that help us live longer and fight disease. Plastic surgery is practiced on them. They test them to create accurate test dummies. They send parts of them all over for scientific research. (Interestingly, Roach writes a regular humor column for the Reader's Digest.)

We are indeed a strange family. How many four-year-olds do you know that drag around a giant skeleton on a leash to the library or to get ice cream, not just for Halloween but year-round. I can see our neighbors, "Timmy, don't play with those Mitchell children. They do operations on their computer." Or are we really so strange? I have a feeling there are some people fascinated with anatomy, surgery, and/or death who haven't "come out of the closet" yet.
If you are one of them, we welcome you.