Mamorial Day, 2011

I usually don’t talk about anything other than kids on the blog, but I thought this was funny. So I figured I’d post it. Yesterday, we went over to my mom’s for a small cookout. It was nice to spend most of the day outside and away from the computer. We brought Vic, the yellow lab along. He enjoyed laying in the grass and was at times amused, but for the most part, he was disinterested in my brothers six chicks. My brother brought a couple of them out into the yard to munch on the grass. Here’s how they all interacted. The cat in the picture is my mom’s. Who knew we could get a picture of a dog, cat and a chicken! The poor chick cried while she was in the yard by herself, but felt better after her sister came along. It was an enjoyable day.

Pond Sensory Tub

Here’s a simple pond sensory tub.



What’s in it?

Water,
Stones of different shapes and sizes,
Rubber duckies,
A frog,
A turtle,
Plastic aquarium plants,
Different sized cups for pouring
And pieces of foil supposed to be Lilly pads.




I tried to make Lilly pads from foil or at least something shaped kind of round or oval, but it wasn’t working. I couldn’t get anything close to a circle, oval and certainly not anything shaped like a Lilly pad. Plus I was rushing to get the tub done and didn’t want to keep messing with foil. I kept the pieces in there anyway because it was something that floats. The kids can pretend they are whatever they want them to be. I like the stones though and the duckies are fun too! If you squeeze the ducks, water comes out of the mouth. I’m sure water would be all over the place when the kids discover that.






For next time, I’d include more plants, more plastic frogs and turtles and maybe I could find some fish that look more like fresh water fish. The plastic fish I have are all sharks, seals etc. I need to take another trip to the dollar store soon. You could also include larger stones or pieces of wood and if you are really adventurous, put a little dirt on the bottom.

Bunny Care Sensory Tub

Here’s a bunny sensory tub I put together a while ago. There are a lot of textures and objects for kids to explore. Most of these objects, you can use to care for a real bunny. They can learn to feed and care for these plush bunnies.



What’s in the tub?
Three bunnies,
Bunny food,
Hand full of hay,
Bowl,
Measuring cup,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Yogurt treats,
Chewable ice cream cone,
Plush carrot,
Shavings,
And a paper bag.



Since some children will get a real bunny this Easter, Click here for a rabbit care guide.
Kids Bunny Fun

Tribute to Knut the Polar Bear

Yesterday, I read that Knut the polar bear passed away. This is sad news. I've never seen him in person but have been watching his story since he was a cub. I'm a big fan of polar bears so I wanted to post a couple of links about him and some of my favorite pictures of him. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I like to teach children about animals and to treat them with kindness and respect. I think even the youngest children can learn things from being around animals. Usually it starts with pets like cats and dogs at home with supervision of course. Through books, photos, stuffed animals and field trips, children can be introduced to the diversity in wildlife.

Here's a link to is article on Wikipedia. I tried to find one from another source, but couldn't find anything with as much detail about his life.
Knut the Polar Bear
A book for kids.
How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World (Knut)
This movie about Knut is also kid friendly.
Knut and Friends







I can't remember where I've gotten these pictures. They were from articles I've read about him and I don't claim them as my own.

Guinea Pig Care Sensory Tub

Here’s the next tub in my critter care series.

What’s in the tub:
Two plush guinea pigs,
Guinea pig food,
Bowl,
Measuring cup,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Yogurt treats,
Chewable ice cream cone,
Plush carrot,
Shavings,
Paper bag,
Eye droppers,
Plastic syringe with no needle of course,
Empty medicine bottles,
Nail file,
Cotton pads.




Keep in mind that this would be best for preschoolers and kids that you’d trust not to put these things in their mouths.
I’ve included almost everything you’d need to care for a guinea pig, but for this tub, I added some stuff that could be used for dramatic play as well. They can use only the things in the sensory tub or pretend they are vets and care for the guinea pigs. Since we have one guinea pig that always goes to the vet, I thought it was a good idea. Some people don’t know that you should take your guinea pig for a checkup once per year. Some people think of critters as disposable animals and don’t take them to the vet even when they get sick. I think the best way to fix that is by educating our kids about the importance of living things even if they are small and don’t live as long as other types of pets.

The two plush guinea pigs are custom made by Morumoto. She makes custom plush guinea pigs and other critters and does a great job! I sent her pictures of our pet guinea pigs and she made exact replicas of them. I also included the little plush carrot she made for us as an extra.

All the other supplies are actual pet supplies. The ice cream cone was an extra one that we had. When we gave it to the pigs, they didn’t want to eat it so I didn’t have a use for the extra until I made this tub. On the other hand, they love the strawberry yogurt treats. I included these in the tub because they smell so good. The measuring cup is for scooping and pouring the food, shavings or treats. There are some little wooden chew treats as well as blocks. There are a lot of textures in this tub. They can burry things in the shavings as well. The tub is an actual guinea pig carrier.






The syringe as I said above has no needle with it. Syringes are used a lot with critters to give them their medicine. We use a nail file a lot on our guinea pigs because they don’t like their nails cut and filing them down is much easier. I mostly included it for the texture and having another object to explore. A lot of the children that I’ve known have had guinea pigs as pets and I know a lot of centers keep them too. This idea might be fun for centers who have guinea pigs since they can’t always be handled by so many children. This way children can experiment without harming or scaring the guinea pig.



We can teach children about guinea pig care, but ultimately, it’s the adult’s responsibility. Children should be supervised at all times while handling a guinea pig.


Guinea Pig board book
What Bounces? Guinea Pig Board Books
Guinea pig coloring page
Guinea pig facts
Kids and Guinea Pigs
Information for parents about guinea pig care and possible rules for children to follow while interacting with guinea pigs.

Gerbil Sensory Tub

What’s in the tub:

Hamster/gerbil food,
Bowl,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Chew sticks,
Cardboard tube,
1 gerbil,
Exercise wheel,
Measuring cup,
and aspen shavings as the base.



This sensory tub is very similar to the hamster one. The only differences are the gerbil and the cardboard tube. Our gerbils love cardboard tubes so I thought I’d include one. Other things you can include are small paper bags, pieces of cardboard, tissue boxes, pieces of paper, wooden houses, scoops, extra bowls etc. It all depends on the size of your tub and how many kids are there. Since the gerbil was so big, I decided to have the wheel next to the tub.



Since plush gerbils are hard to find, some substitutes are mice, rats or of course, hamsters. I know TY makes them as beanie babies and Aurora makes rodents as well. You can usually find some good bargains for small stuffed animals on Ebay. I have never seen a plastic critter or rodent set, but if you could find something like that, it’d work even better. This particular gerbil is handmade and was customized from a picture of our first gerbil named, Fudge. I wish I still had the link to the person who made him, but I can’t remember her name. She specialized in making plush cartoon type rodents. To make it more realistic, you can include a pair of gerbils since gerbils should almost always live in pairs.


Some other base ideas include shredded paper or sunflower seeds. Gerbils love to chew on and nest in shredded paper and ours love eating sunflower seeds. Cheap sunflower seeds can be found at feed stores. I think a 5 lb bag costs $3.00 at our local feed store. They also have cheap bird seed, hamster food, guinea pig food or other types of seeds if you wanted to use any of those as a base. I hope these ideas have been helpful.
Here are photos of our gerbils that we’ve had over the past five years.
Mozart, Sophie and the brothers, both called Fudge have all passed away. Our current gerbils are brothers called, the Brownies.











Guide to Gerbils as Pets
Gerbil Coloring Pages

Hamster Care Cut and Paste Activity

For this cut and paste activity, print out a large picture of this
or something similar.
Then have your child choose which accessories they would like to add to the cage. If your child is too young, you can cut out the pictures for them and let them glue the pictures themselves.


Your choice of hamster:

Accessories

I couldn't find a good picture of an empty wheel so this one has a hamster on it.

Choose from these Sleeping Quarters

Choose from these chewable items.

Choose from the following treats.

You could also do this with other types of pets and by finding or taking your own sets of pictures.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

All other pictures were found using Google Images.

hamster Care Sensory Tub

For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting the critter care sensory tubs that I made. Keep in mind that these are for preschool age children or older. I think younger kids would put this stuff in their mouth and even though the stuff is fresh out of the packages, I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving some of these materials to them.
I’ll start off with a hamster care tub.

What’s in the tub:


Aspen shavings as the base,
Hamster food,
Bowl,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Chew sticks,
TV,
Strawberry,
Two hamsters,
Exercise wheel,
And a measuring cup for scooping and pouring.

The tub is actually a critter pet carrier. The shavings are aspen with no other kinds of wood mixed in as I mentioned above. We use these for all our critters here at home. We don’t have hamsters at the moment, but we have in the passed and these shavings worked well for them. The shavings are mostly soft wood but you’ll occasionally find some harder wood chips. It’s a little dusty though, but it’s a material that you can scoop, pour and burry things in.



The biggest thing in the tub is the exercise wheel. It’s in the tub for the first picture for demonstration, but I took it out for the rest of the pictures. If I were putting this in a larger sensory table, I’d add my extra wheel which is the same size.


The bowl is actually for a hamster and the food is hamster or gerbil food. We have two gerbils so this is the kind of food I used. The bottle is the perfect size for hamsters or gerbils as well. I didn’t fill it because wet shavings can make a huge mess, but it has a little plastic fish inside which would normally tell you how much water you have left in the bottle.



The TV and strawberry are of course for hamsters to sleep. Since hamsters spend three fourths of the day sleeping, they need hideouts. I thought the TV and strawberry were cute. Unfortunately, these hamsters were too big, but I wanted to show normal sized sleeping quarters for hamsters. Other ideas for hideouts are the bottom part of a milk gallon container with a door cut out of it, tissue boxes or paper bags.





I included a bunch of ABC blocks because hamsters need plenty of wood to chew on. Since their teeth keep growing, chewing on the wood helps file their teeth down. I also included some chew sticks to show what hamster treats look like. Hamsters can be given some fresh fruits and veggies. We used to give ours a grape or piece of carrot for a treat. They also sell a variety of treats for hamsters at the pet stores.



The two plush hamsters are made by Aurora. I’d prefer plastic animals that way the shavings don’t get stuck to them, but you can just pick the shavings off the fur. Also, I wanted to note that in real life, there should never be more than one hamster to a cage unless they are dwarf hamsters. For our playing purposes, we can have as many hamsters as we’d like. Hamsters make better pets for older children, but some of you have children of different ages in your family. This is a way for little ones to experience hamsters without the worries of dropping the hamster, getting bit or overfeeding it.



We were going to do something similar to this at the preschool last summer, but like a lot of plans there, they get scrapped. However, I thought it was still worth including on the blog because kids love pets and I thought it would be useful for them to get introduced to the materials necessary to care for them. It’s important to teach children about responsible pet ownership.

ASPCA Hamster Care
Hamster Coloring Pages