Timothy loves animals. He plays with our dog, Molly, far longer than is matched by her interest. He watches birds outside our house. He also loves to read books about animals–Touch and Feel Farm is a long-time favorite, and Petting Farm is a wonderful new addition. The Petting Farm book came with a DVD, and this has been incredible. It’s a simple concept which is perfect for him. The narrator introduces segments featuring different animals, and children on the DVD talk about what the animals are doing, what a particular baby animal is called (such as horse/foal), and other general tidbits about the current animal. I love watching this with him and teaching him different animal names and sounds. He can make the sounds for dogs (his first animal sound, and still the default when he doesn’t know the answer), horses, sheep, baby chicks, and frogs (which aren’t in the DVD but which we have stuffed versions of all over the house). Of course, sometimes he resembles a broken see-n-say: “Timothy, what does the pig say?” “Woof woof!” “What does the duck say?” “Woof woof!” He’s very entertaining, and always proud of himself as we also are of him.
Nathaniel is just starting to become interested in Molly, and is going through the process of pulling her fur, smacking her nose, and pushing her face away when she tries to clean him. Poor Molly put up with this from Timothy for several months when he was younger, and she is handling Nathaniel’s attentions with the same long-suffering gentleness. We were able to teach Timothy how to be gentle with her, and we are grateful that she is putting up with Nathaniel’s attentions until he learns gentleness, too.
Yea! Animals! And gentleness! It’s all very good.
I always feel like I’ve let the side down (as they say in England) because my cow sounds a lot like an elephant. I guess that’s where a slightly more accurate DVD comes in handy.