Baby Animals - What is adoption?

In Day 5's day bag these writing sheets were provided.  But there was no lesson around them in the book.  I think maybe they got stuck in the wrong bag but Lachlan really wanted to write on his.  Of course there was no way I was going to refuse.  So this is how we started our day.

I don't have too many photos from this day, but it was still a lot of fun.  A lot of today turned out to be about discussion.  Mostly because the boys just didn't seem that into doing things.  I started by asking them the first question of the day, what is a family?  At this point, the discussion wasn't quite a 2 way discussion.  It was more about me talking and them listening.  I explained what a family is and also added a bit about adoption, since that is the topic today.  Telling them that a family isn't always just kids who have been born into a family.  I asked Lachlan if he knew that there are some kids that don't have a Mommy or a Daddy?  He looked at me truly sad.  But I explained that those children can be adopted by a new Mommy and Daddy and made a part of the family.  Isn't that nice? He gave me just a little yes head nod, still contemplating all of this I suppose. 

I had started to cut apart and get ready to play the BINGO game that came along in today's day bag, when I asked, if you could adopt a baby animal for your family, which would you choose?  The boys saw the cards I was preparing for the game and the one on top had a baby bear, so Lachlan chose to adopt a baby bear. 

I got out the beans we use for BINGO and we played Baby Animal Bingo.  The boys really like this game.  Sadly, Lachlan has my BINGO luck and Peter has someone elses.  He seems to always be ahead, which bothers Lachlan.  I did make sure Lachlan won a game or two.

Next we worked on the Dog Treats activity.  I got out the dog treats that MGT provided for us and put them in a paper bag.  I let Peter go first, sticking his arm in the bag and feeling what was inside.  I asked him to explain it to me, then smell it.  He said it smelled like "a dog treat."  Someone must have took a peak.  I still did the same thing with Lachlan because I think it is a great concept for them to feel and describe.  Which he did really well.  Next we shared our school activity with our dog Mona who was very interested the whole time. 

The next point of discussion was about what we can do to show love to a puppy or other adopted baby?  In the instructions we were to talk about the sign language word for "water" and encourage the children to practice with us.  I told Lachlan one way we can show love to our pets is to take care of them, providing them with food and water.  Then we did the sign for water several times.  The confusing part was that the card that came with today's day bag was the sign card for "baby".  I went ahead and showed the boys how to sign baby, a good sign for them to learn these days anyhow. 

Lastly, we went back to Puppies around the World.  This was a bit of a geography lesson.  We were provided with a world discovery card that had a little Canadian flag to cut out and place on our world map.  It also had instructions for making a sled for the Canadian dogs to pull through the snow.  We skipped that part and just had a nice conversation at the map as we placed the Canadian flag.  I told them that some dogs that are adopted in Canada are trained to be sled dogs.  On the world map itself, there is a picture of 2 moose (I think, maybe reindeer?) pulling a sled.  So it was a pretty easy conversation to have.

Overall it was a really nice day.  I don't know if I would have thought about the topic of adoption.  I am still a little in awe at Lachlan's reaction to the fact that some kids don't have Mommies and Daddies.  It really did seem to bother him.  So I might have to find and point out some great examples of adoption, I know we have a few at our church.