Well my three little darlings well more the older 2 want a pet of their own and have been pestering us well this weekend just gone we were window shopping around Trowbridge and popped into pets at home as a behaviour reward for little Emily and they came across Degus now they had heard me talk about them in the past and never truly understood what one was but it was love at first sight for Jessica and Thomas.
So I said no and then Duncan said (underestimating the children slightly) if you save up and learn about them proving to us you want them and will look after them over the next month you can have them. So the rules were drawn up that they had to care for a teddy for the month as a pretend degus they had to research what they were where they are from what they eat and how much they cost, they knew we would only pay for the animals themselves and will not pay out an other penny towards them after so they would have to foot all the ongoing bills and so the Degu Project was born so naturally I spent all Sunday making their first weeks worksheets and planning a 3 week project (we have our annual family holiday during September so they won’t be doing anything that week) and here’s the rough outline.
Week one: caring for a pet Degu and their needs
Week two: Wild Degus and Degu behaviour
Week three: determining sex of degus and Degu Anatomy (mainly looking at their digestive System and their eyes and eye sight providing the weeks holiday hasn’t helped them forget and loose interest)
To be fair it’s a good time for a project like this as it has given me a boost as they have actually chosen one of my specialities and a topic I already know a lot about without having to spend my nights googling the topic to keep up, it’s at the beginning of the school year so has helped them settle back beautifully into the swing of things (because no school work no Degu project not Degu project no Degu lol) and more than anything else after 2 years of disorder it has forced me into reminding a ordered groove we have all been desperately needing and then of course to help with this new found structure comes to start with that added boost of extra help with chores and well let’s just say that now having something they want to save up for they are more willing than ever to go that extra mile so slowly over the past week order is filling the camp because of course if they don’t do their chores they won’t earn the money.
For those who don’t know this is a Degu.
Cute little fella hey obviously this one’s wild and theirs won’t be but you get the picture it’s a giant Gerbil that’s related to a Chinchilla can suffer from diabetes and brighten anyone’s day with their antics (so don’t get me wrong if I sound reluctant, I am by no means against their decision should they take the responsibility for them as I am tapped out and enjoying not having animal responsibilities I am quiet happy with the whole Rent a dog thing we have with my brother and my nephew dog 🐶 lol)
Look they are very cute but also very time consuming and costly as Thomas and Jessica found out Monday!
So here is what I have come up with and some of their work so far (their flyers aren’t quiet finished yet and they do their lap book in the library tomorrow but here’s our weekly plan for this project.
Brief intro to the project as ever apologies for the errors this is one of those rare cases where I lost the whole lot and didn’t grammar or spell check before printing so will be printing it all out reworded for their Coombe binded copy (I told the kids it was on purpose to keep them on their toes as you do not that they believed it mind ha ha)
So we read through this then I pointed out their side of the bargain about proving responsibility towards them we agreed that they could show this by feeding our fish daily, spend 20 minutes a day talking to the fish as they would have to the degus when they first got them to build up trust and acceptance and by them practising handling and initial trust exercises with 3 selected teddies (although Emily is noting to so with this process or project she wanted to join in in this part so she is she is doing a project on Alicorns instead as that’s the pet she will be getting when she’s big enough! Decided to leave that bubble up popped for now but it could sneak in and bite me in the backside when she decides as Alicorns don’t exist she will have a horse instead lol)
So here are the honorary Degus in their pretend cage!
Now they actually forgot to put them away this evening so they will find come morning feed and talk time they will have to find them (one under the coffee table and 2 other one behind each sofa with just a little foot showing lol)
They actually did day 4 on day one so here’s their first shopping list 📃
Now being an ongoing project this will probably be updated after published as the children finish putting together their work.
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