Homeschool menagerie! Anyone else?

[RegGuheert]

More and more I feel our homeschool is being transformed into a menagerie. This trend is largely driven by DS11, who loves creatures of all sizes and shapes. Here are a couple of pictures of him this morning "doing" his A Beka math:

 

 

 

We also have a bunch of chickens, but they do not join us during school.

 

Is there anyone else living in a menagerie who is willing to share your pictures and/or stories?

 

BTW, that cat is a REAL hunter. The best I have ever known, in fact. He has hunted, killed and eaten quite a few bunnies of this size in the course of his life, though he IS slowing down as of late. Hopefully we are not causing him or the bunnies TOO much mental anguish by this type of treatment! :D

[happypamama]

We have a gecko and some fish whose aquariums are in our school room, and our daughter will often try to snuggle with one of the cats during school time too. :)

[laurad1125]

Don't touch the cats during school is actually a rule at our house. :001_smile:

 

We have 1 dog, 5 cats, 2 hamsters and some fish.

[FaithManor]

Reg,

 

I completely understand. When we moved here we had one cat. Then dd wanted a rabbit. Okay, so we got a rabbit. Then we went to the pet store and there was the most dear, gray dwarf netherland bunny and I fell in love. She became my therapy bunny...sat on my lap while doing lessons, slept on my chest when I had a nap, I LOVED that rabbit. She choked on a particularly large piece of carrot she managed to bite off and there wasn't anything I could. So, I purchased a small tort colored, runt of the litter, dutch bunny. Then ds wanted to do a "pocket pets" project for 4-H, so we purchased a turtle whom he named Felix who then became the subject of some short stories that won him a Best oF Show in Fine Arts. This same ds, in concert with his younger brother, wanted ducks to show at the fair. I wanted to get just two. DD begged for a mating pair. So, then came the two australian spotteds along with a bachelor pad of two call ducks that ended up being three bachelors because DH fell in love with a cute gray call that is not even close to show worthy....argh....then the bachelors fought to much because of there being only one female on the property. So, a wife for the khaki call came to live here and the other two are baching it alone but there is much begging to get a wife for the butterscoth (truthfully he is gorgeous and could possibly father something worthy of selling) but that would leave one bachelor all by himself and ducks don't make great loners. So, if I cave on getting another female for the butterscotch, then I'll have to get a companion for the gray.

 

To top it off, dh convinced me that we needed a puppy. So Clives Staples Lewis, known as Lewis for short, a sport cocker spaniel came to live with us in October. Outside, apparently hybernating in ice we also have three rather huge goldfish in dd's water garden which is occupied from April - October by a neat frog named Fred whose happy home is disrupted several times per week when ds takes his turtle out for a romp in the water lilies and such.

 

Oh and some years, for eight weeks, we occasionally have a bottle fed Romney lamb living in the house. DD began her lamb rescue in which she agrees to take the orphans of either ewes that died or were too stupid to take care of their young and bottle raises them until they are old enough to return to the flock in exchange for their first shearing of wool which she has dyed and spun for gorgeous knitting wool. Of course, dh and I go in the hole financially for the lamb formula and the baby diapers. Yes, diapers! They cut a hole for the tail and diaper the litle cuties who then follow us around the house like puppies. They are quite fun, definitely sweet, and the kids have learned that having a baby in the house is responsibility because during the first 72 hours, they are fed colostrum every 2-3 hours around the clock which means the kids take turn getting up in the night.

 

So, yeah....I get the menagerie thing. Completely, totatlly, get it. Beware.....animals have been known to appear out of thin air! Oh wait, I forgot about DD's leopard gecko lizard. I barely tolerate that thing. It looks like a snake with legs but, dh reminds me that it does actually have legs so therefore does not violate my absolutely no snakes ever on this property rule. I'd like to have a few laying hens but I am afraid this would start a downhill spiral of gargantuan proportions culminating in our family operating a professional petting zoo.

 

Faith

Edited January 10, 2011 by FaithManor

[elise1mds]

Six cats, two dogs, and a gerbil. And 11 chickens. We're actually down by quite a few because the lizard and the fish have died in the past few months. DS is gunning for a bearded dragon, and DD is begging for a rabbit. We shall see.

[saja1029]

We constantly have to "shoo" away cats trying to lay on textbooks here.;)

[d.g.]

I'd say we're working on a menagerie, but usually ours tends to be seasonal. We end up collecting and raising creepy crawlies all spring and summer. Crickets, grasshoppers, isopods, spiders, worms, grubs, toads...if it tends to be found in a somewhat wild suburban backyard, we've probably caught it and kept it for at least a few days, sometimes 'til early fall.

 

As for long-term residents, we have a cat, several dozen hissing cockroaches, and 13 fish (we started with 3 a few weeks ago, but they're platies, so they reproduce like Tribbles). We'll be getting a Grow-a-Frog once the weather warms up.

 

The only reason we don't have a larger menagerie is that our house has only 980 sq ft (poorly designed, too) on the main floor and our yard is NOT fenced. Otherwise, the boys would have convinced me to get a dog or several, and who knows what other sorts of animals.

[d.g.]

We constantly have to "shoo" away cats trying to lay on textbooks here.;)

 

 

Our cat also loves to "help" with school. She steals pencils/pens and sleeps on our books while we're trying to read.

[SailorMom]

We - as of this weekend - have three new fire bellied toads in our school room :). We also have a lab and a great dane who constantly try to get on the couch in our school room to cuddle with DH while he's studying, and a cat that lays across the keyboard of the computer and kicks the mouse off the desk if he isn't getting enough attention....

[Murphy101]

One dog

2 cats

2 parakeets

1 rabbit

2 hermit crabs

 

In warmer weather we have a few turtles that roam the yard. They are all buried somewhere in it among the moles tho for the winter season.

 

And a koi pond that tends to attract lots of critters, but never actually has any koi in it.

[kwickimom]

We have 3 dogs, 1 cat, 3 guinea pigs I just rescued, 1 loud mouthed parrot, 6 deer, 6 turkeys, 16 chickens, and 1 goldfish that is going on 4 yrs old.

 

I would have more if I had the money :D I cant say no to an animal. I just got the guinea pigs because some girl was in Petsmart crying that hers had babies and they couldnt afford to feed them and they hadnt ate in 3 days and Petsmart couldnt take them, so I did. They were freezing cold and starving :-(

[Matryoshka]

Our menagerie isn't that impressive compared to some here! :)

 

We've just got 3 cats, a ball python, and a guinea fowl. We recently lost our guinea hen, and need to get another one to keep the boy company. And my dd has been begging for a dog, so come spring this may be growing...