Animals

 

Animals and pets are proven to benefit children in a number of ways. Parents often bring a pet into the family to teach children a sense of responsibility, or perhaps to provide an only child with a playmate. But children learn something more essential about themselves and the world: how to empathize with others, how to understand subtle feelings and how to look at the world from a vastly different perspective.

A child learns how the world and living things are interconnected, develop curiosity and build empathy.
 

On the emotional level, pets can teach children many things:

• Communication: Children learn the subtle cues their pets give them to indicate their feelings. They can later apply this lesson to human interaction because they are more attuned to watching for body posture.

• Empathy: Children often become curious about the emotions their pets feel. This curiosity will extend itself to others. Animals offer an avenue for children to explore their curiosity. For a child, curiosity can lead to hope and to greater engagement with the world around them.

• Nurturing skills: If properly supervised by adults, a child learns how to take care of another living being, and take pleasure in keeping the pet healthy and happy.

 

Annually we have both chick/duckling and butterfly living life cycles. These give the children the opportunity to experience firsthand and up close amazing life cycles. Many of our children and a number of parents have seen eggs hatching and have the opportunity to hold baby chicks and ducklings. With regular up dates on our facebook page, these activities prove very popular with children, parents, staff and families.