Fun with Animals
I’m not big on animals BUT since going to the Animal Resort & Zoo with Sophie and friends plus James getting his hands dirty with Crystal Red Shrimps, I find myself becoming more curious. Ok I must admit it’s still on an intellectual level (so interesting!), not emotional at all, I still jump when a dog brushes past my legs. Hiak 
My fears aside, I’m keen to get Sophie excited about animals! How?
1. BOOKS
Recently, armed with Borders discount coupons (30%! plus 10% on the preferred card = 40% off! Yipee!), I bought Sophie two books related to animals – First Encyclopedia of Animals by The Usborne and Madeline Loves Animals.
The first book is more for me. Haha. But Sophie has taken to it! She loves pointing to the animals and asking what’s this? And I love it coz it gives the correct names for the animals e.g it’s not just an eel, it’s a Gulper eel or it’s not just a shark, it’s a basking shark. Cool beans! And I read the details just for fun to her e.g. Snails have a hard shell they can curl up in. This protects their bodies from enemies etc.
The second book is so funny! I loved Madeline as a kid. Madeline is a cheeky but smart little girl who lives in a boarding house. In this book, she goes around saying hi to the butterfly, throws bread for the birds etc. And one sentence across two pages! Great!
2. REAL FISH
We got Sophie a fish tank on impulse! James woke up on Sat and decided let’s go fish shopping. Sophie got to choose some guppies and some other small fish which I’ve forgotten the names of. 
3. CRAFT
We made ourselves a little play aquarium. I had stocked up some craft materials at the recent Popular sale – scissors, glue, ice cream sticks, construction paper, cardboard paper, foam etc.
We cut out fish from coloured foam and mounted and glued them on coloured ice cream sticks. Next we cut out the shape of water from foam and mounted and glued them on a construction paper. Simple! Sophie got to play with the glue and learnt to stick stuff together. She could pretend to move the fish and play.
But tt was a mess coz the parts of the fish were so small, it kept falling apart. And Sophie kept wanting to play with them before the glue dried. In the end, we were left with 2 fish. We started off with 4! Haha.