Have you ever seen the frame of a house when it's being built? The frame of the house helps to support the house. Your skeletal system works the same way. It is the frame for your body. Without it, you would be like a sponge, not able to stand up, sit up, walk, or run. Your skeleton is made up of many bones.

Your skull is like a bike helmet that you would wear for safety when you take a ride on a bicycle. The skull protects your brain like a shield. Did you know that you have more bones when you are born than when you are an adult? Pretty interesting fact. It's not like losing your teeth.

When you are born, you have over 300 bones. As you get older, some of your bones fuse or grow together and glue themselves to other bones. By the time you are an adult, you have 206 bones in your body.

Your muscles are attached to your bones by tendons. They help the bones move so you can walk, pick up a ball, or run to first base when you play baseball. Where your bones meet other bones is called a joint.

Your bones are living things. They are made of cells that make them strong so they can repair themselves if they ever break. The bones are kept in good health with blood. The blood feeds the bones with food and oxygen so they can function properly.

Most of our bones are hollow. That means that the inside has space. The hollow part is where you would find the bone marrow. Bone marrow is very important to your bones. Without it, you wouldn't be able to grow and fight illnesses. Bone marrow makes red and white blood cells.

Red blood cells are responsible for feeding the bones with oxygen. Did you know that bone marrow makes about 2.6 million red blood cells per second? Red blood cells are very important, so the bone marrow needs to make a lot of them. The white blood cells are the fighter cells. They fight diseases that hurt bones. As you can see, bone marrow is very important to our skeletal system and the human body altogether.

It's very important that you take care of your bones by giving them calcium. Calcium can be found in milk, cheese, yogurt, and now it's even in some orange juice brands. Calcium keeps bones and teeth from getting fragile and weak so that they won't break or crack. If your bones don't get the calcium they need you may develop osteoporosis during old age. Women more than men need to worry about this problem.

 

FAQs about the Skeletal System:

 

The human hand has 27 bones.

The human face has 14 bones in all.

The longest bone in your body is the thigh bone. It is also called the femur. It is usually 1/4 of your total height.