Never work with children and animals…
It is an often said motto that a person of sound mind should never work with children or animals, but I think I’m slightly crazy so I work with both! My classroom was the same as every other early years classroom, interactive displays everywhere, fish tank in the corner, lots of bright colour’s, everything in its place and it was fine but I began to realise that the children in my class weren’t taking any responsibility for it. They would happily rip the pages out of a book or stab a pen down onto the table so the nib would vanish. When questioned about these things they would always announce that the ‘scape goats’ in the class had done it even though I knew full well they had been nowhere near the area when the crime had taken place. It was becoming a place of diminished responsibility and as every early years practitioner will know, we want to create independent, responsible learners. After discussion with my year partner we decided class pets would be the perfect way to stop the destruction because the children would have to learn responsibility…or at least that's what we imagined through our rose tinted specs.
The reality has been some what different, it has been us that have had to take on more jobs and the looking after of our lovely class pets. We decided upon guinea pigs, not too big, not too small with very calm temperaments.
It’s safe to say that since we got our class pets we have become very crazy guinea pig ladies. They are an absolute delight to have around, however it soon became apparent that it was not the children that would be doing the majority of the work.
As a word of warning to other prospective teacher owners, these are the things we didn’t even consider when we fell in love with the idea of the children having some class pets…
- The holidays! A foolish oversight. When discussing the purchase of our class pets we came to the conclusion that children would be able to take the guinea pigs home over the holidays so that we would no longer need to worry about that. The way this has actually panned out is that we became too attached to the guineas and couldn’t bear the thought of them possibly being squeezed too hard or not fed the smorgasbord of veg they get twice a day when with us, so they now spend the holidays with my team teacher in a deluxe cage set up with a massive run outside for good weather days. As well as this they get chauffeur driven to the house by me because our precious little ladies couldn’t possibly use public transport!
- The cost! Maybe we are extravagant because we feel slightly guilty that they have to be held by so many little hands most days, but our guinea pigs are the most pampered pets I have ever met (possibly excluding handbag dogs in coats). They are used to a diet of the finest hay, hay cookies, pellet food and an entire salad both morning and night. Included in the salad are curly kale, spinach, lettuce (a prepared, mixed bag), cucumber, pepper, coriander, parsley, basil, little gem lettuce, carrot, green beans, mange tout and then the occasional bit of tomato or apple. Would they be getting all this if they lived at home with us, I very much doubt it but I think we both have a slight mentality of ‘well if you have to put up with all this noise and all the cuddles you deserve it’. The only thing we do save on is treats because we googled guinea pig diets and realised they could become diabetic! (another thing we hadn’t thought about). Not only is the cost of feeding them high but the vet bills soon add up! During the summer, whilst staying with my year partner Jaffa got an eye injury and the vet bills from that added up to a small fortune!
- The time it takes to look after them! This is where I apologise to my mum for all those years she had to look after my pets when I was a child. It is quite a drain on time to have class pets, they need cleaning out at least twice a week (they have a huge two tiered cage) and then we get them out to spend time with them after school if they haven’t had chance to go in the run that day. We also take them across to the grassy area so they can have a womble around in there, and take our work with us so we don’t feel like we are being unproductive.
These issues are definitely something to think about before you step into the world of children and animals but for us, we wouldn’t want it any other way. This is the part where I tell you how they have enhanced our classroom and the children’s learning but I would have to say they haven’t had as much of an impact as I had hoped they would.
The children adore their class pets and get really excited on days when we get them out for a group session, however, perhaps because of their age, they still don’t understand that only one or two people should be stroking the guinea pigs at one time. It is a constant battle to get the children to sit in their spaces and wait for the guinea pig to come to them. Having said that, the children have become much better at holding the guinea pigs, now tending to just let them sit in their laps, rather than trying to grip them tightly, and the guineas are more than happy to oblige when it comes to sitting and getting a stroke.
We had visions of the children taking complete responsibility for the pets but sadly they are only interested in the nice bits of pet ownership, the feeding and cuddling parts. The cleaning out has been left to the adults (again, sorry mum!) which is a big drain on time.
All in all, class pets work for us, we love them, the children love them and I think the guinea pigs do quite enjoy the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Just remember to really discuss the ins and outs of classroom pet ownership before you jump in, I hope this has been helpful for prospective children/animal mixers.
