This month the Canadian Homeschooling community is doing a round on on Conference Chats (goes live April 27).  We're to pretend we have to give a speech on ANY topic we want and then write what we would talk about.

When I first heard the topic I thought BUNNIES, I can talk about Bunnies and then hmm.. but how can I tie that into homeschooling.   As much as I love to talk about bunnies, I need to honour the group that I am working through right?  :)  

It got me to thinking about how the bunnies have helped in many different ways with schooling and just with general life topics.

Let me present for your consideration ways that animals are helpful in learning about life in a spiritual scope.

1. Why do just these mice always try to jump out of their cages?
     Watching what animals do is so enlightening.   We have house of mice, that the mice are always able to get out of.  It's given my son a reason to observe them and realize how mice are able to use other things to get to where they want to.   How, just like a cat does, they look at what is around them and learn to measure distances.

     People learn and grow too.  We see what is around us and use it, hopefully for our betterment.  Not all will do this though.  Just as one group of mice is filled with explorer mice, the rest of our mice are very content to stay where put.   People are no different, God made us all different.  Many are content to be led, while others are leaders, there is room for both.

2. Look how nice Milo is, keeping me company while I read!
    The companionship that animals provide can be an excellent distraction and a way for a boy to keep busy with his hands while he's busy using his eyes.  

    The different ways God meets the needs of his people amaze me.   When my son was learning to read, his cat was always there with him.  Settling his heart and body so his mind focused.

3. Why do I have to take care of the mice before breakfast?
     Learning to put the needs of others before himself is an important lesson for any child to learn.   It's also a good talking point about what responsibility means.  

     The Lord God gave us dominion over the earth.   Told us to take charge and care for all that he provided us with.   That's a responsibility we need to take seriously.

4. Why do they talk so much when we have the guinea pigs all alone?
      Did you know that guinea pigs don't like to be alone, and that what one guinea pig does, the rest of them will often copy?   This means that if one is alone, it will call for the rest of the herd.   If the herd is all together one one notices a favourite food is coming, it'll call out and the rest of the herd will join in?

     God calls us to be in fellowship with each other.   Just like guinea pigs do best when part of a herd, God's people do best if they are part of a body of believers, encouraging, teaching, strengthening each other.

We learn other things from the animals as well.
1. Financial responsibility.   It costs money to house, feed and protect animals.  Choices need to be made about what is the wisest way to spend dollars.
2. Entrepreneurial skills.   Talking to customers, managing your business, selecting for temperament, colour, and type, advertising, and more.   Creating care sheets and learning great communication skills.
3. Life starts and ends. Animals are born, animals die. animals get sick.  How does one manage this?    Vet care, do it yourself care, watching healthy animals points the way to knowing what an unhealthy animal looks like, good observation skills are a must.
4. Not everyone is caring.  Sadly in our years of caring for animals we have need to rescue some animals.   It's saddens our hearts to see how uncaring some folks are about their animals.   Sometimes it's deliberate, other times it's simply lack of knowledge, either way it just very sad when animals are treated poorly and need to be brought back to good health.

To help you learn about bunnies and how to care for them I put together this ebook for you.   

Just click on the image to the left.

Giant Forest Hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni)is a HUGE hog... I tell yah..... My lad and I wanted to see what this shaggy hog looked like and were amazed at the sheer size of some of these hogs. 

The males are bigger than the females, they are a dark brown or black in colour covered with hair, this hair becomes more sparse the older the hogs get.   They have swellings below their eyes, which can get quite large in the males.  They have a bristle like mane which they raise when alarmed or excited.  They also have tusks.

Check it out:

This video below gives some good information about them.   Did you know that these wild hogs prefer to live in areas with a dense understorey, a large variety of plants and a good water source?

Giant Forest Hog is large wild hog weighing from 100 to 275 kg.  They are found only in Africa.   

Unlike most wild hogs, the African Forest Hog primarily eats grasses, sedges and herbage.   These plants may contain carrion or eggs, but they mostly eat the plants.   They engage coprophogia, which is the eating of feces.

They live in family groups of 6-14 animals, with a dominant boar.  Boars will fight when they first meet to decide heirarchy, thereafter they won't fight anymore as the loser will make himself scarce should the family groups meet up again.

These hogs are not threatened despite being localized in their populations and well-hunted.   Their numbers are not declining and they continue to create crop damage, carry swine fever and are part of the cycle for sleeping sickness.   Though according to this site, more people are starting to hunt them for food and so they are starting to disappear more quickly.

Even though these giant hogs damage crops, through their activities they help with dispersing plant species.   They keep to trails that connect their grazing grounds, latrines, wallow holes and anything else they use regularly.

If you click in the image below it will take you to a worksheet directly connected with this blog post.

Sources:
ICUN.  Animal Diversity. Ultimate Ungulate.   National geographic.  Wildscreen.

As my son and I were reading in our mammals book tonight we learned about a group of animals called "Marsupial gliders" of which there are three types: Sugar, pygmy and greater.    My son asked "are they like flying squirrels mom?"  We looked up all three before he settled to bed and we both though the faces of the greater were funny looking with their big ears so.. Let's learn about the Greater glider.

The greater glider, like other marsupials (barring the opossum) lives in Australia.   They are the largest of the marsupial gliders...they can be up to 1 metre long, and of all the gliders are the most varied in their colour.    Their colour can range from white to sooty grey, the northern greater gliders have brown with a tan belly.

The greater glider (also known as the greater gliding possum) is restricted to eastern portion of Australia.

A marsupial is an animal that carries it's young in a pouch, they live primarily in Australia.   They can also be found in North and South America.  They range from small four-footed forms like the marsupial mole to the large two-legged kangaroos.

The greater marsupial glider is classified differently than the rest of gliders being more closely linked with the ring-tailed possum.

It is a folivore, dining predominately on the leaves of the eucalyptus trees.  It prefers to be live in old growth forests where it can hide among the leaves.  Their scientific name is Petauroides volans.   To learn more about the Greater Glider, please download the document below.

Sources.
Wildlife of QLD.   Britannica. Berkeley Ed.  Animal Diversity. IUCN Threatened Species.   Wiki.