Juggling act

I live a double life (or perhaps even a triple one). I write novels as well as educational resources for many different publishers. As well as a writer, I am also a primary (elementary) school teacher. This term, we are studying science, with a focus on chemistry.

Like most teachers, I spend hours on the internet looking for relevant activities and resources. In particular, I look for ‘experts’ to come into the school to do hands-on activities with the children. To my dismay, I could only find one here in NZ. This is science in a van.

http://www.scienceinavan.co.nz/

These guys are great. Unfortunately, we’ve had them in for the last two years and the children have seen most of their activities.

So then I went off on a tangent and found sites more relevant to the living world. This, I confess, was motivated by my three year old son’s keen interest in animals. A few weekends ago, we took him to a ‘farm’ where children get to pet animals, ride on horses and tractors and feed pigs, cows, donkeys and goats. A few weekends ago, he went to a birthday party where they had a petting zoo which included reptiles (turtles and snakes), rabbits, rats, mice and even a chinchilla. He loved it. Here in NZ, there doesn’t seem to be many people who offer these types of interactive activities. If you go offshore, you can find more.

Canada seems to offer more. This place in particular:

http://www.safariscience.com/

They even offer reptile themed birthdays which I know my son would love. Pity they’re so far away otherwise we’d be there in a flash.