Medical Day!

(this post could also be titled "Daddy Explains What He Does to Bring Home the Bacon")

Will's kindergarten class just finished up their unit on the human body, so his teacher invited a few medical professionals (who happen to be kindergarten parents) to come talk to the class.  I visited one day and spent about 30 minutes talking about my job and letting them try out some doctor tools.  I also brought an ear model and we talked about ear infections, not sticking anything inside the ear(!), and earwax (always a popular topic with kids!).

The following day, the kids had a "Medical Clinic"--they brought in a favorite stuffed animal to doctor.  John came for the first part of that day, and shared about his job.  He brought Xrays, a spine model, and some masks and surgical scrub hats.  I stopped in on my lunch break to help tie on some masks, but these photos are from the school:

The teacher brought in some medical braces--they tried to stump John by seeing if he knew what body part they belonged to.

Will checks for a heartbeat on Mickey Skywalker:

Will's buddy, Elijah, brought his mom in as well--she's a surgical scrub nurse and I think she was the hit of the day.  She cut open a stuffed animal at home, unstuffed it and then restuffed it with candy.  Then she brought it into the class, where she prepped and draped it, then let the kids surgically remove the candy from the animal's stomach:

Is that genius or what?  The kids loooved it...here's Will:

She also brought in a stuffed animal coated with special powder.  She had the children pass the animal around (so that they all got the powder on their hands) and then showed them with a black light how the powder had gotten on everyone's hands, to show them how germs are spread.  Will is already a germaphobe, so this pushed him over the edge:

I asked Will if he enjoyed having us come to his class, and he did, so I guess we're still a few years from the point where he's embarrassed by us. :-)