As Christmas is nearing, many families consider adding a pet. We’ve all seen adorable pictures of children delighting in finding a new pet on Christmas morning, under the tree.
Photo by Rhaúl V. Alva on Unsplash
Our first adventure into owning pets began on my daughter’s 1st birthday when someone gave her a kitten. I don’t recommend giving pets as gifts unless the parents are ok with it. We were shocked. I’d never owned a kitten and had no idea what to do with it.
Adopting a pet adds a whole new dimension to your family life. Although it is not the right decision for every family, there are a lot of benefits for children.
LOVE
Pets are known for giving unconditional love. Cuddling with a pet can help relieve stress and anxiety or combat loneliness. I cannot count how many times one of my toddlers was in the midst of a tantrum, I thought the day was now ruined, and a dog ran over to them to see what was wrong; a quick cuddle and they’d start to calm down. Somehow, cuddling on the couch with a dog would turn around their mood. These were moments that I was extremely grateful to have dogs in my home!
Children also learn empathy through caring for a pet. They learn to think outside of themselves as they look at their beloved pet and try to read them to see what they need. Do they need to go out? Are they hungry? Are they thirsty? Are they scared? In my opinion, there is no better way to teach our children how to look out for the needs of something other than themself. Selfishness has no place in caring for a pet.
A child will also learn to be kind and gentle as they learn to care for a pet. When my son was 5, I used to think he didn’t have a gentle bone in his body. So often I’d walk into the room and find him sitting on the floor whispering and stroking one of the cats. I could not believe he had this gentle loving side to him.
RESPONSIBILITY
I feel like this is kind of obvious, but I’m going to touch on it anyway. Allowing a child to care for a pet all on his own, is impossible. As a parent, we can’t allow for natural consequences in this area. We need to make sure that we are supervising this area. Even very young children can fill a water bottle or bowl. Youngsters are capable of helping clean cages, feeding, grooming and playing with their beloved animals.
A pet will also encourage our children to be more active. A child will need to take the time to play with their animal. Not only does this keep the child entertained, but it’s also important to keep the animals exercising.
HOMESCHOOLING
You may ask how, apart from the benefits listed above, a pet can be any sort of curriculum. You’d be surprised!
When we would talk about adding a new pet into our home, it inevitably ended up with hours and hours of research! I remember going to the library and checking out a HUGE pile of books about dogs when we were first considering adopting a dog. With my daughter, we went through dog breed book after dog breed book, making lists of the types that we thought would be good for our family. We also made lists of the types of supplies we would need. There was research done as to what type of food was the best. She made a “dog breed” book which included pictures and descriptions of each one. For a reluctant writer, this was a huge step!
Now let’s talk about the veterinarian visits. We researched what a vet was. On our first visit, the vet asked my daughter what she wanted to be when she grew up. My daughter told her that she wanted to be a vet. Our new vet was thrilled and invited her to come and shadow her for a month. I was thrilled! This became a whole new journey for us. We read more about vets and then she went off to shadow. After about 2 days, she decided she didn’t want to be a vet anymore. She hadn’t realized that they euthanized animals and administered vaccinations. She was disgusted and began to look for a new future career. This did not however, end our “Vet Station” that she had set up at home. This continued for years and years. She used the knowledge she had gained at the vet office and put it to use on all the stuffed animals in our home. No visitor was immune; each one was “required” to adopt a stuffed animal as soon as they walked in the door and my daughter would start “examining” them. This led to us learning all about the anatomy of the different animals. We would draw out the skeletons and learn where the major organs were.
Our pets also starred in many creative writing assignments. What if the cat went up in a space shuttle? What if our gerbil visited Mars? My dog the scuba diver….you get the idea!
We were also able to incorporate the pets into many different art aspects. From sketching them, to photography skills, to writing little plays and puppet shows starring them.
For many emerging readers, reading to a pet is the perfect activity. They aren’t judged and can practice their reading out loud which helps them become more confident.
A way I chose to incorporate math skills was with budgeting. We had a certain amount set aside each month for pet supplies. The children helped to compare prices on the different necessities and make sure we stayed within that budget.
We would also search out pinterest for different DIY pet toys and treats and practice making them. These were some of the most enjoyable experiences ever. My best memory is learning to make fleece tie blankets for our dogs and cats. We loved doing this and made so many that we took some to our humane society. When we brought them in, they gave us a tour and sat and talked about pets with my children. It was so much fun and the kids learned so much from it.
Our morning routine involved caring for the pets. We have a checklist for each pet and take turns checking it all off before we can start on anything else.
Over the years, we have owned so many pets! Cats, dogs, a bird, fish, a chinchilla, guinea pigs and so many gerbils I didn’t know what we’d do! At one time, we wound up with 43 of them! ADVICE: don’t trust a child to tell you the sex of the gerbil you are purchasing. Our 2 “boys” quickly had babies and since my knowledge of gerbils was non-existent, it seemed like there were more every few weeks.
COMPROMISE
This came about in many forms. Naming each pet has been a huge compromise(and challenge). We’ve also had to compromise on who would get to cuddle with which pet and when. Then the compromises on who had the responsibilities with each pet.
Adding a pet to the family is life changing. They bring us so much joy and bond us forever. We just recently added these two little kittens and are enjoying kitten time all over again!
What pets do you have in your family?
