Monday, May 28, 2007

sand- our pet tadpole shrimp



One of smart son's school units was on pets. I have to say I love animals, but not in my house. Seriously I have a hard enough time keeping my children fed, clean, taking care of their messes that I have no desire to add an animal to the mix at this point. Also add to this my objections to things that smell, things that shed (complicating the wearing of black pants), things whose poop I have to clean up (motherhood provides enough of that already), or anything that bothers my allergies. I do however appreciate the pet keeping experience for teaching responsibility and learning respect for living things. I found something just my speed -- tadpole shrimp. Yes you just dump the egg packet in water (as one of the amazing things about tadpole shrimp their eggs can be "dehydrated" and feed every other day. For 8 weeks now "Sand" as smart son affectionately named him is going strong. And when the time came to do the school assignment to make your own pet rock you can only guess what my son decided to make his into-- no cats, dogs or mice here - way too trite-- only a tadpole shrimp would do- we used wax paper, lanyard string, and 3 eyes (because yes they have 3 eyes) to concoct the pet rock. Sand has become a welcome addition to our family even smart baby loves to watch "sand -- funny fish" as he calls it. so if you are thinking of adding a pet- 2 thumbs up for the tadpole shrimp.

3 comments:

Courtney said...

That sounds like my kind of pet. Poor Seth years for a pet and he even prayed my allergies would go away so we could get a cat.

Shelah said...

my kids want those too. so far I've been successful at holding them off. When we want animals, we go to the zoo.

smart mama said...

you've got to do it-- totally nice and low key! and they only an 8 week commitment!