#10 Kids and animals

Before the commencement of the 2008 school year, we treated our two local grandchildren to an outing at an animal farm tourist complex. At 6 and 4 years of age, they are at ideal ages to interact with animals in a positive manner and to retain information and memories.

What is it about lively kids and placid animals? It's as though they are on equal terms; speak the same language even. It's a joy to watch.

Of course, the animals are drawn to the children at such a facility knowing they will be offered food, but in the absence of barriers and restrictions, many children are naturally attracted to animals they've never encountered, without fear or hesitation.

Madison and Zachari were both wide-eyed and full of questions. They touched goats and sheep, pigs and cows, ducks, geese and chooks, running from one farmyard animal to the next to check them out in detail.

Even country kids rarely get to mingle with farm animals, so this was a learning experience along with a fun activity. Yes, they'd seen ducks and geese in story books and drawn them with crayons, but to actually touch them and see the difference in the two for their own eyes, was something else. They felt the roughness of the goats' horns and the thickness of the sheeps' woolly coats. And they had the opportunity to bottle feed a goat, and to milk a cow.

Sister and brother sit down to check out Daisy's underparts

Boy child hasn't got the method right

using all his muscles and both hands

Girl child shows how it's done - squeeze and pull

The kids wore Ma and their pregnant mum out, so we took a break on the sidelines while Pa supervised - not that much supervision was necessary, but someone needed to own them.

We all then wandered off to meet kangaroos and koalas, donkeys and llamas, camels and buffelo, ponies and long-horned cattle. They got to see the claws of a kangaroo up close and feel the lips of a donkey. They laughed as they watched the large round bump of a whole apple slide down the tall curved neck of an osterich. And they gasped in amazement as the apple-bump slid back down towards the head as the huge bird put it's beak in the trough for more.

Even lunch couldn't contain the children's excitement, and they talked to the rooster while eating their salad. And a trip to the toilet took a half hour because the long-necked turtles were just so fascinating.

As usual, I took heaps of photos, and will put together a collection for each of them so they have a momento of the outing. Kids and animals - what a beautiful combination!