Today, we started with a review of Nikki’s homework. She drew a skeleton of a dragon and labelled the anatomical position, the relational terms, and body parts. We clarified the differences in the nomenclature of the bones of the hands and the feet, and added some more labels to our skeleton. Nikki did an amazing job on her first assignment. A+ work...!
Next we talked about the types of joints that exist in the body and how they move. We looked at the ligaments of the ankle and saw how they attach bones. We saw that tendons attach muscles to bones, and looked at different types of muscles.
Our focus was primarily on skeletal muscles. Nikki wanted to start from the top and work our way down the body, so today we looked at the muscles of the head and neck. We examined them on our own body and felt their movements.
I showed Nikki some of the amazing drawings done by Frank Netter, MD.
Nikki’s homework is in layers (a la some of Dr. Netter’s drawings): draw a skull,
draw a skull with the muscles on it, and draw a skull with the skin on it.
I also asked Nikki to look up Frank Netter so that she could learn a little more about him and so that she could investigate some of the drawings herself.
In the next lesson we will talk about the muscles of the trunk. Then we will look at the anatomy puzzle that places all of the organs inside the different body cavities. This will lead into a discussion of the brain and nervous system so that we can talk about how the brain tells our musculoskeletal system to move, and ultimately can lead us to the musculature of the limbs. (All of that will take more than one session.)