Enjoyment in teaching

As part of a blog cruise the question is put to me "what subject do I enjoy teaching the most".  It's be released on Feb 12.

I don't even hesitate to say.... whatever the lad is interested in at the moment.

You know...those spontaneous Mom questions "mom, why doesn't God make it so everything can change like a grouper can?'  Wouldn't that be handy mom?"

I can't remember...ah.. now I remember.  We were reading one of the Riley adventures books. 

In this book the author talked about how groupers are all born female but how some of them can turn into males when they are a year old.  Pretty neat huh?   That just grabbed the lad's attention and so we learned that most animals do not have this ability but some other animals do as well.  Limpets, some worms, a type of fish called a sheephead that is born male but turns into a female, and a variety of other fishes as well.   It's like WOW!   Rather neat eh?  :)

This process is called sequential hermaphroditism.   Which I told the lad but he promptly forgot.  :)    But he found it interesting indeed...even where it is mostly aquatic species that have this ability.  YaleNews was helpful in explaining why more animals don't do this.

Anyways, I find doing this kind of learning the easiest.  It is spontaneous.  it is easily remembered.  AND it is good learning. 

By the by...if you want books that can be good conversation starters among animal interested children...these Adventures of Riley books are excellent!