Zoology 101

I’m blogging through the alphabet with A Net in Time & Hopkins Homeschool… this week we’ve made it to the letter Z! Obviously in our house Z is for Zoology.

a / b / c / d / e / f / g / h / i / j / k / l / m / n / o / p / q / r / s / t / u / v / w / x / y / z

It’s no secret that we’re critter-crazy here in the White House. I was called Snow White, for my fondness for critters, long before I married Mr. White. There’s scarcely a creature in the whole of God’s animal kingdom that I don’t find endearing & lovable– even the most cringe-worthy of species: opossum, raccoons, rats, mice, reptiles, gophers? Yes please!

Presently, we’ve got tadpoles metamorphing in a jar atop my kitchen counter, two Holland Lops that hippity-hop about the backyard, a duo of gregarious guinea pigs in the garage, and a pair of feisty felines who prowl about the place as though they pay the mortgage.

We keep binoculars handy on windowsills to spy on finches, squirrels, & raccoons, and we sneak treats to the loyal Labrador next door. We feed chipmunks at the park, grab slithering snakes as we hike, and fish salamanders from cold mountain streams.

Each year we hatch praying mantises (manti? Mantee?) and release ladybugs into the garden. We’ve raised monarch butterflies from caterpillars and kept flocks of chickens & ducks. Our girls have resumed their pet-sitting business, and are filling up the calendar with gigs.

Since moving back to Oregon we’ve enjoyed petting zoos at county fairs and Husband re-upped our old zoo membership in Portland. (The investment pays for itself after just two visits, and takes the pressure off of each visit knowing you can return as often as you like.) Homeschoolers : Zoos :: Bees : Flowers

This fall we plan to study animals properly, aided by our favorite science curriculum, Apologia. We’ve used Apologia materials to learn about astronomy, marine biology, and most recently anatomy & physiology. We plan to delve into their botany course down the road, but this year the choice was quite obvious. Call me Snow White, or call me the zookeeper’s wife… Z is Zoology.