Dontcha Think a Cat Is Just Like That?

Yowzers! I tried to do something fancy with my photos and now they're all over the place. Admittedly like my life in recent days. Let's just pretend I did it on purpose so you could play a photo scavenger hunt. ;)

Our family is learning about how to be responsible pet owners. The KONOS curriculum we use actually recommends that we go out and BUY a pet for this unit! Well, I tried, I really did. I even couched it as a "key to furthering our children's education and character building." My husband was havin' None. O. Dat.

So...since we don't own a dog or a cat, just a pathetic herd of Sea Monkeys on the kitchen window sill, we had to improvise a bit. Here are a few things we've worked on in the last few weeks to learn about caring for animals responsibly.

Our field trip to the vet's office
... and the dog groomer's, which was right next door.

The co-op kids show us how pets do snack time. (Cocoa Puffs and Goldfish crackers make great "pet food"!)

Playing "Dog Trainer Says"

One of our co-op activities was a Show and Tell about our favorite pet. The kids each chose an animal breed and prepared a short oral report to present to the group. I was VERY impressed to see the kids' enthusiasm for their topics and the preparation they put into it. (Especially when I thought many would balk at this first venture in "public speaking.") Even Anna jumped on the bandwagon and demonstrated how her stuffed kitty cat can drink from a bottle. :) Here we have Rebekah treating us to a lecture, and I do mean lecture, on Seal Point Siamese cats, and Ellie showing the different coat colorings of the German Shepherd. (Behind her on the wall is our poster of the anatomy of a Great Dane.)

Anna-the-Puppy gives her Daddy some good ol' puppy love.

Lest we forget the feline members of society, I dusted off the old "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes," changed the words, and added hand motions to teach everyone the anatomy of a cat. Sing with me now- "Mask, ruff, haunches, paw, haunches, paw. Mask, ruff, haunches, paw, haunches, paw. Ear tufts, papillae, and the whisker pads. Mask, ruff, haunches, paw, haunches, paw!"
I also asked my girls to coreograph a dance to the song, A Cat's Like That. In the end, their performance turned out to be more about spinning in circles and lying on the floor, but frankly, it's a fun song and they were too busy enjoying to the music to do a theatrical interpretation for a school assignment. Dontcha think a cat's like that?