Pet Stores and Encyclopedic Knowledge

Window shopping education. Who knew?

We have recently discovered the educational (and entertaining) joys of window shopping at Petsmart, a fun little venture that came about by us randomly wandering through the strip mall stores in town for lack of anything better to do and essentially, because it was fun.

We have been on little excursions to pet stores before. The last time I wrote about one was when we went to this little downtown shop, over two years ago. But although our previous pet-trecks have been great fun and also quite educational, our more recent visits to Petsmart have been all the more enlightening because of one simple thing: labeling.

See, Glenn Doman believed that, if at all possible, you should give your child the most exact, precise, and clear information you can. That means telling your child that "There is a pretty robin!" not just a "bird" (or even worse, "birdy" or "tweet tweet").

Even better than telling your your child there is a pretty robin would be to tell your child that "There is a pretty bird called an American Robin [its actual name] and the pretty bird's scientific name is Turdus migratorius!" If you have that information, of course.

They both take the exact same amount of time and effort. But as you can quite obviously see, they both don't have the exact same amount of impact or effect by far.

And while browsing through the awesome variety of reptiles, small mammals, arachnids and birds in the super store, we were delightfully enlightened by such precise, clear, discreet (and interesting) names as the veiled chameleon, the red-eared slider turtle, the rose-haired tarantula, the ball python, the bearded dragon lizard, the zebra finch, and the fancy green-cheeked conure, just to name a few.

What was equally delightful was that they not only had such wonderfully specific names below each creature's cage but also little bits and pieces such as its scientific name, its habitat, lifespan, species' characteristics and fun facts.

What a splendid (and free) way to not only enjoy the turtle munching lettuce or the mice flipping each other on the exercise wheel or the parrots having conversations but also to learn so much right then and there without any effort or researching on the parent's part.

All at just a stop at the mall.

"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." 

Genesis 2:19

Hunter is 5 years, 3 months old