Well, when I think of the zoo, I think of chaos, tons of running, sunshine, screeching noises, bird calls, screaming kids, food on the ground that chipmunks quickly snatch up and peacocks constantly running from the little beings that are desperately trying to get their hands on them. But when we actually go to the zoo (which we do quite often), most animals seem fairly docile, quiet, lazy really. The bears are beached, the mountain goats are standing upon their rocky mountains as if having just made a huge conquest and needing to stop to rest, the pink flamingos are standing still, the pelicans look full, the snakes are not slithering, the crocs have nothing to croc, and the zebras seem to be quite smug in their solution to the black/white or white/black conundrum. That is not our house…I think further.
I realize that every now and again, when we’re really luck we get the pacing tigers, screeching swinging monkeys, playing polar bears and (almost always) the lightning quick seals that give you just a glimpse before performing some underwater maneuver that hurts my back just to watch, and then disappear. We do our part for the running, screeching noises, screaming kids, placing food on the ground for those chipmunks, and certainly have done our share of chasing peacocks. I guess the zoo is what you make of it. We seem to be good at the chaos of the zoo, we get a lot of practice at home.
Our house if not full of little monkey people swinging from chandeliers. With a 5 year old with cerebral palsy, an almost 2 year old “little explorer/helper/mess maker/princess” and a 9 month old happy to be able to explore the places he only saw from a distance, we have our own kind of zoo. In any given 15 minute period you can see:
3 diapers get changed, 4 spit up messes cleaned from the floor, clothes changed due to crawling in the spit up before it was picked up, 2 bib changes, cheerios selected as a snack and put in a bowl for easy transport, running and screaming, hitting, a Time Out, keeping others away from the one in T.O., cheerios lovingly scattered on the floor and being crushed by even more loving feet, another bit of spit up, a T.O. apology and hugs all around, more screaming, climbing on the sofa, a lot of “calm down’s”, an apple chosen as the next snack, apple preparation, a baby deciding he wants a bottle, a request to make a rainbow from suckers, a little more screaming, a touch of whining, bits of apple pieces dropping out of a mouth onto the floor, then of course picked back up and re-eaten, the telephone ringing, changing yet another diaper and a request or 8 (in a row, one right after the other) for Daddy (the other Zoo Keeper)….yeah, where is he anyway?
Hm. Yes, trying to explain our zoo should be easy enough, right?
There are only four things that calm our house down, just a little: sleeping (yeah, when you can actually get them there), eating at the table (which is calm only if they’re starving otherwise it’s a lot of musical chairs and musical plates), watching a movie (which only 1 of 3 enjoy), or getting them involved in an activity that they all enjoy (you have to select these carefully). Since we’re on the zoo theme, one activity that looks interesting and like it may capture the attention of my screeching monkey, chipmunk, and peacock is the iKnow Animals, Letters & Sounds. Checking out their site, I think this is one that could get my kids interest going. They love animals, music and (believe it or not) flashcards, and I like that iKLS uses real life animal pictures and scenes on their DVDs and flash cards (the ones we have use cartoon animals). At the same time that they learn about animals in the world (and at the zoo), I will be continuing to encourage their reading and interest in learning, and they’ll be quiet (bonus) or at least a little less zoo-ey.
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