how do, or did, you guys use your animals interactively with your kids to teach them stuff.
for instance, my son likes doin' punnet squares of all kinds of crazy combos...FOR FUN ! yeah, i think it's weird too, but the kid can rock up to 64 boxes !
you guys work your kids like that ?
ck

my son writes papers on our snakes and he goes to school and gives reports to the lower grades and he gets extra credit for doing that my girl is starting to do the same thing i my little boy will do the same when he gets bigger

My addiction has lead to my kid going to shows with me. She helps me work my booth. She started seeing leos and has saved her money for a few. She has learn the responsibility of caring for pets. She also helps me care for my rodents. It also means another educated kid not scared of snakes. She loves to bring her friends over to the house to show of my snakes.

They loved all the animals in the beginning. Now they could care less and get all mad if daddy wants them to help clean cages.

Out of my two boys , one is a die hard Leo lover. He looks forward to hanging out with the missus on her day off to help her with the leos. The other son is more into the furry type pets. Neither are scared to handle any of our animals and really dig going to shows to see all the different species.

All my kids have been around them since birth and I believe they just look it as a way of life. My youngest girl which is two years old with dig through the mealworm bins with me...:)

My lovely ol' lady can't believe it..:D

my 6 yaer old son crushed 120dollars worh of pop and beer cans to buy his pair of nics and my 4 year old daughter has 3 corns she earned money to buy basicly begged her grandparents to let her do chores to earn they both help[ me clean and feed every week my son gives little reports to his first grade class about were his nics camefron and what they are morphs the hole nine yards he loves to read snake books the two of them with my help set up our incubator and hatched there first clutch of corns this year my kids are very hands on with our whole collection so far

my 6 yaer old son crushed 120dollars worh of pop and beer cans to buy his pair of nics and my 4 year old daughter has 3 corns she earned money to buy basicly begged her grandparents to let her do chores to earn they both help[ me clean and feed every week my son gives little reports to his first grade class about were his nics camefron and what they are morphs the hole nine yards he loves to read snake books the two of them with my help set up our incubator and hatched there first clutch of corns this year my kids are very hands on with our whole collection so far

that's great stuff ! you must be pretty psyched about all that.
keep up the good work ,
ck

Yeah the girls could care less now, I blame it on the preteen stuff...they had their projects, took sheds to school, had me drag stuff in and all that but now it is about friends and texting so I am just SOL for a few more years.

Hopefully they will get back into when they are older but I never pushed them into any of it (except when I used to make them go walk in the woods herping with me) since I wanted them to get some enjoyment out of it.

All my kids have been around them since birth and I believe they just look it as a way of life. My youngest girl which is two years old with dig through the mealworm bins with me...:)

My lovely ol' lady can't believe it..:D

that's both nasty and awesome at the same time. my kids don't mind crispy critters either, i'm not a big fan o' bugs (although i used to have a big female red leg tarantula). probably why my only non-serptile herps are cresties, love that CGD, and the no-trips-to-the-pet-shop-twice-a-week.
ck

my son writes papers on our snakes and he goes to school and gives reports to the lower grades and he gets extra credit for doing that my girl is starting to do the same thing i my little boy will do the same when he gets bigger

how cool is that. probably enjoys the assignment too !
ck

Yeah the girls could care less now, I blame it on the preteen stuff...they had their projects, took sheds to school, had me drag stuff in and all that but now it is about friends and texting so I am just SOL for a few more years.

Hopefully they will get back into when they are older but I never pushed them into any of it (except when I used to make them go walk in the woods herping with me) since I wanted them to get some enjoyment out of it.

that's got "great dad" written all over it, hang in there, they'll be back.
ck

Out of my two boys , one is a die hard Leo lover. He looks forward to hanging out with the missus on her day off to help her with the leos. The other son is more into the furry type pets. Neither are scared to handle any of our animals and really dig going to shows to see all the different species.

nice parent-kid time cruisin' shows together, i'd say my guys enjoy it as much as i do (at least for now !)
ck

My addiction has lead to my kid going to shows with me. She helps me work my booth. She started seeing leos and has saved her money for a few. She has learn the responsibility of caring for pets. She also helps me care for my rodents. It also means another educated kid not scared of snakes. She loves to bring her friends over to the house to show of my snakes.

i know when i get back from work and there are friends over, they always wanna see the snakes, it's great watchin' kids go from scared as heck to "ooooo, can i hold another ?"
our small opportunity to take the ophiophobes out of the ranks one kid at a time.
ck

my 5 year old won't stop talking about his pets at school.So i ended up doing a little show and tell at his school and his day care.also ended up doing another class he wasnt in.great practic for me and him since i would have to keep on doing little shows til he's old enough to do them himself