Learning Through Pets

Written By The Coop

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Pet Benefits

We all know that owning a pet can be pretty awesome for a family. The list of benefits are reported in article after article about the blessings of pet ownership and connection, such as reducing anxiety, stress, and depression, companionship, exercise - and even helping children with ADHD to focus and bringing calm to children with Autism! “The Power of Pets” article from NIH website is linked here.

Starting the Journey

Before you guide your child on this journey, we recommend that you first ask your child to lead the way. Ask her to make a list of what she knows, what she still needs to learn, how she will learn it, and to figure out how to go about procuring and caring for this pet. Let her start this journey without you inserting ideas, facts, or process into her head - and see what she pursues and learns. If she needs help, here are some ideas and lists to help walk her through the process. Ultimately, you want this entire process to be something that she takes ownership over, which will empower her and grow autonomy, enabling her to be a better pet owner.

Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning author, says, “For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.”

STEP 1: Research

Learning to research using a variety of resources helps with developing important critical thinking skills and prepares your child for developing credible research papers. It also equips your child for defending his beliefs or argument on a specific subject. If your child really desires a pet, why not guide him to learn a valuable skill while learning something he is excited about?!? Researching a pet is the first stage of the process for acquiring a pet.

  • Researching can take many forms - it can be any of the following:

    • interviews (past or current pet owners, pet store clerks, family members who will be impacted by animal)

    • articles (magazine/online)

    • books (library, bookstore)

    • classes (vet camp for a day, Outschool.com, Farm School, day with a pet owner)

    • YouTube videos

    • Mock Pet Ownership (daily chores completed without being asked to to them)

  • Discussion about Sources

    • What is a credible source of information?

    • How many sources should you explore?

    • How do you know the information is true or current? (UCLA has some helpful tools and questions here.)

  • Topics to Research: Child needs to take notes in a notebook and/or use this checklist

    • what kinds of pet piques interest and works for your home lifestyle

    • varieties of a specific animal

    • pet care responsibilities

    • habitat (cage, bedding, box, shelter)

    • Safe diet/nutrition (pet may already have a favorite brand of food)

    • cage/habitat cleaning needs

    • litter types and care (pine/paper/crystal/clumping/non-clumping)

    • life span and life cycle

    • initial and monthly costs

    • mental health care (causes of stress and fatigue, and if two is better than one)

    • sleep habits

    • exercise needs

    • impact on your home life

    • acclimation to you and your home

    • handling/interaction needs and propensity for biting people

    • best pet toys or type of play

    • ways to connect with the pet in a meaningful way

    • where to procure pet (Humane Society, pet store, private residences, etc.)

    • local veterinarian clinics and how often a vet visit is needed

    • home vet care solutions, interventions, and supplies needed

    • pet care when you are out of town (by whom and supplies needed)

STEP 2: Budget

  • Knowing the Costs

    • initial costs?

    • recurring monthly costs?

    • How long do you expect to keep this animal?

    • Vet costs

    • Home vet care solution supplies

    • unused supplies or habitats that can be cleaned and re-used

    • emergency funds

  • Raising the Funds

    • chores

    • job (depending on your child’s age)

    • donations

    • entrepreneur activities

    • garage sale

    • birthday gift designation

    • negotiation (sharing the load)

  • Getting the Deals

    • Facebook marketplace

    • Craigslist

    • Offer Up

    • Buy Nothing

    • friends of friends

    • local garage sales (aquariums, heating lamps, repurposing, etc.)

STEP 3: Plan Ahead

Your child will need to work with you to prepare the following:

  • Habitat

    • where the pet will live (inside, outside, which room to sleep and eat in, etc.)

    • locations off-limits to the pet

    • where will food be bought and stored, buy the food and store it (checking first with current owner if there is a food preference)

    • where food and water will be made available to the pet

    • where the litter or waste will go

    • how to dispose of the waste

    • regular cleaning of cages/aquariums/yard tentative schedule

  • Introductions

    • calm ways to bring a pet into your home

    • how to interact with friends who visit home

  • Sharing Responsibility

    • delegate specific tasks to the appropriately aged children

    • develop tentative schedule for delegation of tasks (food, water, cleaning cage/litter)

STEP 4: Grow Responsibility and Maturity

You have the pet, and now let the deeper learning experience begin!

  • requires work ethic and discipline

  • learns natural consequences for not caring for or knowing enough about the animal

  • puts another’s need above her own, teaches selflessness

  • develops skills and character for caring for younger sibling or future child

  • ongoing learning about their pets and other related animals

  • brings mortality into view

“Death is the hardest question, and in an age that gives short shrift to the transmission of wisdom from old to young, it is not surprising that death is the single most obvious fact of life from which we constantly insulate our kids. We have, to our detriment, created a cult of denial about our own mortality. Life needs to be lived and prioritized with the understanding that it is limited. An awareness of one’s mortality makes life richer because the important can be emphasized and the trivial marginalized.”
— — The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance, by Ben Sasse, page 96

Documentaries/Docuseries

Winged Migration, March of the Penguins, Planet Earth 1 & 2, The Blue Planet 1 & 2, Frozen Planet, The Hunt, Life, Inside the Mind of Cats (Netflix).

TV Shows

Wild Kratts (cable/YouTube TV), Sea Rescue (Amazon Prime), Alaska Animal Rescue (Disney+), Tiny Creatures (Netflix)

For more, check out our podcast episode about this topic here.

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