We had some unsettled weather yesterday afternoon, so we packed away our beach gear and headed over to a local children's museum instead. This Bearded Dragon decided to pose for me to take his picture -- this is the best look we've had of him to date, usually he's tucked away in one of the corners of his cage.
The animal room. The kids are checking out the Eastern Screech Owl, one of their favorites. We spent several hours at the museum , Zoo Boy spent most of it quizzing the volunteers about the names of all of the animals. (Not what species they are, but what they are actually called -- like the fact that the Fan-Tailed Pigeon is named Scooby.)
This is Cassie, one of the museum's Ball Pythons. We've met Cassie, and her counter-part Monty, previously during live animal programs there. On this particular day, Cassie had a rest -- it was a corn snake that was on display during the live animal demo. Very pretty little snake, not sure why I didn't think to get a picture of it.
One of the kids' favorite places in the museum is this little reading nook in the animal room. They like to read the books (all about animals, obviously!) and then pretend they are the various creatures. They also like taking the books around to the animals' cages and showing them the pictures of their "cousins".
Jewel, the Barred Owl, one of the first animals we met at the museum, and one of our favorite. Jewel's right wing was shot off by a teenager years ago, and the teen's little brother saved him and brought him to the museum, who nursed him back to life. But an owl without a wing won't survive in the wild, so Jewel will live at the museum for the rest of his life. Jewel's story has prompted lots of interesting discussion around this house, about guns, responsibility, injuries and healing, and quality of life -- all at a preschool level, of course, but thought-provoking none the less. Mostly I've just let Zoo Boy voice his emotions and thoughts and tried to keep my own judgement out of it, answering his tehoretical questions as open-ended as I can, and providing the facts of the situation as simply as I can. (J for the most part has just listened in on the discussions.) It's been an interesting experience for Zoo Boy, who is very interested in guns and hunting, yet is very sensitive about animals' personal rights.
We had some unsettled weather yesterday afternoon, so we packed away our beach gear and headed over to a local children's museum instead. This Bearded Dragon decided to pose for me to take his picture -- this is the best look we've had of him to date, usually he's tucked away in one of the corners of his cage.
The animal room. The kids are checking out the Eastern Screech Owl, one of their favorites. We spent several hours at the museum , Zoo Boy spent most of it quizzing the volunteers about the names of all of the animals. (Not what species they are, but what they are actually called -- like the fact that the Fan-Tailed Pigeon is named Scooby.)
This is Cassie, one of the museum's Ball Pythons. We've met Cassie, and her counter-part Monty, previously during live animal programs there. On this particular day, Cassie had a rest -- it was a corn snake that was on display during the live animal demo. Very pretty little snake, not sure why I didn't think to get a picture of it. 
One of the kids' favorite places in the museum is this little reading nook in the animal room. They like to read the books (all about animals, obviously!) and then pretend they are the various creatures. They also like taking the books around to the animals' cages and showing them the pictures of their "cousins".
Jewel, the Barred Owl, one of the first animals we met at the museum, and one of our favorite. Jewel's right wing was shot off by a teenager years ago, and the teen's little brother saved him and brought him to the museum, who nursed him back to life. But an owl without a wing won't survive in the wild, so Jewel will live at the museum for the rest of his life. Jewel's story has prompted lots of interesting discussion around this house, about guns, responsibility, injuries and healing, and quality of life -- all at a preschool level, of course, but thought-provoking none the less. Mostly I've just let Zoo Boy voice his emotions and thoughts and tried to keep my own judgement out of it, answering his tehoretical questions as open-ended as I can, and providing the facts of the situation as simply as I can. (J for the most part has just listened in on the discussions.) It's been an interesting experience for Zoo Boy, who is very interested in guns and hunting, yet is very sensitive about animals' personal rights.
1 comment:
Hi,
I have enjoyed reading your posts on Holistic Family and came by to say hello. We have some friends who recently got chickens and my girls love to visit them. Your family life seems to be filled with lots of joy. Thanks for sharing the stories.
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