If you could be any animal...

"If you could be any animal, what would you be?"

It's a simple question, and in our house, one that was raised by my eight year old. This question does provide a great opportunity for conversation to explore what children know about animals. The answers I got were varied:

An ant: because they are strong and busy
A lion: because they are fierce and really good hunters
A girl mosquito: because they go out and suck blood
A dog: because they are taken care of by families that love them

These responses led to great conversations about the difference between wild vs. domesticated animals. We looked at maps of where wild animals come from far away from where we live. We talked about how we can love and take care of our pets at home. We also talked the "work" that animals do in nature - bees pollinate food sources, spiders and bats eat harmful bugs, worms aerate soil, etc.

Ask your children today, if they could be any animal in the world, what would they be? And why? Like I was, you may be amazed at their answers.