Taking Franklin for a walk

One of our favourite activities is taking our red eared turtle Franklin for a walk. Notice how intently the children observe him.

Feeding Franklin

Hamish and the guide dog

We are so lucky that we get to meet guide dogs. Your Mum works at the guide dog training centre ... so we are lucky to get to meet some of the dogs that are in training. What a fabulous job these dogs do to give people with visual impairments more independence and freedom.

Ryan, thank you for sharing your kittens

Tyreece shares one of his puppies

We always love it when Tyreece's dog has puppies because we get to see them. Chocolate labradors are SO gorgeous. There are six puppies - four boys and three girls. Jaden would just LOVE to have a puppy. Thanks for sharing your puppies Tyreece.

Our wonderful Franklin

Our wonderful Franklin is always the source of wonder and fascination. What a cool boy he is.

Building a relationship with the guinea pigs

Feeding Franklin is an important job

Spending time with the guinea pigs

Our afternoons have been SO busy of late that we have not had a lot of time to spend with our guinea pigs. Caring for the guinea pigs is such a popular part of our programme that it was nice to spend some quality time in the guinea pig grotto holding the guinea pigs in their snuggle bags. For some of the new children this was a first time experience. Oh how we love our guinea pigs.

Promoting greyhound adoption

They say it is not what you know, but who you know ... and that was certainly the case in this instance. Sinead used to come to Botany Downs Kindergarten many years ago. Sinead (and her Mum Heather) LOVE animals and from time to time they bring their animals in to visit. We learnt that greyhounds are quite soppy dogs. We learnt that they don't need lots of exercise. They run in short fast bursts, then they like to sleep (a bit like cats). 600 greyhounds enter the racing industry each year. Not all make it. Last year 100 greyhounds were adopted out to new homes. Don't ask what happens to the rest!! That is why there is a programme called 'adopt a greyhound'.
Thanks Sinead and Heather

The guinea pig babies

What lucky guinea pig babies ... they got to go to live at Max's house. Rumour has it the babies have been called Powergirl and Superhero. That is so very Max.

What a delight!

Over the past three weeks we have lived the story of Lauren's chook Snow White. Snow White came into their kitchen, hopped up on their bench and laid her eggs. A nest was duly made to accommodate the new residents. Snow White was happy to be taken outside for regular toilet breaks. Just when they were about to give up any hope of chickens hatching out popped this beautiful chicken. Lauren tells us they haven't named it yet. What a beautiful chicken! We felt so lucky to be able to see it up close and to be able to pat it. We hope 'no name yet' chicken will be able to come and see us again. No sooner had Lauren's Mum got home again than she rang us to tell us that on the way home from kindergarten another chick had hatched. How cool is that!

Possum Bourne pays a visit

Friday was Az's first day at our kindergarten. As we welcomed him we found out that his Dad had rescued and raised a baby possum ... called Possum Bourne. What a quiet possum Possum was. It was hard to believe that they can be so devastating to our native forests. This was such a special experience because we never get to see possums up close and personal. Thanks Az.

Fascinating Franklin