Why don't we flop like jelly?

Have you ever given a bowl of jelly a gentle shake? Feel how it jiggles and wiggles. Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble!

Your tummy and arms feel soft too, a bit like jelly. So why don't you flop down in a wobbly heap? Let's find out together.

Jelly is soft all the way through. It has nothing hard inside to keep it firm. That is why it wobbles and flops about when you give it a shake.

Your body is different. Under your soft skin, you have bones. Bones are hard, so they keep their shape and don't bend like jelly.

Your bones fit together from your head down to your toes. All of them together make your skeleton, which means the hard frame inside your body. Your skeleton holds you up, just like poles hold up a tent.

Right down the middle of your back, your skeleton has a long row of little bones. They stack up one on top of another. What do you think that row of bones helps you do?

It holds your back up straight and tall! That row is your backbone, which means the line of bones down your back. Thanks to your backbone, you can sit up without flopping over.

Long bones in your legs hold up your hips, and your hips hold up your backbone. Together they carry you, the way legs hold up a table. So you can stand without sinking to the floor.

Your soft parts wrap around your skeleton. They hang on it like a coat on a hanger. The hard bones give your soft body its shape.

Skeleton, backbone. You don't flop because your hard skeleton inside holds your soft body up.

Sweet dreams, little one, all snug and steady in your cozy bed.