By Colleen Rowe

My mother and I often cook up fun activities to do with my niece - her great-niece. While we often bring her parents along, my mom, A.K.A. “Great-Big-Aunt-Colleen,” leads the pack when it comes to activity planning.

Among GBAC’s ideas, taking our niece to the petting zoo has proven to be pretty successful. Children are often fascinated by animals, especially those you can’t find lounging around the house. There are local petting zoos around the country that allow children to discover new types of animals—whatever location, there are usually animals available to meet and hug like old friends.

My niece is an animal lover. I think one of her goals must be to meet as many pets and farm animals as possible before she turns five. She obviously hasn’t formally listed this, but I’m sure that if she could, she’d keep it tucked in a miniature day-planner with the heading goals: meet a pony; talk to a pony; make a dog friend; eat the Disney princess gummy candies; avoid nap-time—repeat if necessary.

Introduce them to new types of animals and give your nieces and nephews descriptions of their living habits and where their breeds are typically from. Whether it seems like the information is seeping in, or if they are simply just having a great time as a donkey eats feed out of their hands, they are putting the things you tell them away to use for later. My niece will come up with the most interesting facts! Yes, we all know sharks are “scary,” but when young children tell you they are, you really have to believe them. 

Visiting the petting zoo is not only for regular weekend trips, but a petting zoo birthday party is also a great way for children to get used to other animals. For my niece’s second birthday, my family organized a petting zoo to bring animals and a few of their helpers to my house. Kids around the neighborhood were talking about an “animal festival somewhere in town.” My niece had a great time and her friends joined in the fun, along with random recruits from nearby houses.

Photo: Roy Scarlett
Published: 8/27/2014