Being nasty to them what deserve it

[dsrtao]

...the people at ICR aren't competent to offer kindergarten level courses in pretty, pretty baby animals, let alone real biology.

-- P.Z. Myers at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/12/are_we_tired_of_texas_inanity.php talking about Texas considering the accreditation of the Institute for Creation Research to grant M.S. in science education.

I like saying "pretty, pretty baby animals". Z and E both know the Latin names for several dozen dinosaurs and know approximately when they became extinct. _Go Diego Go_ isn't an awful resource for teaching Central and South American ecology, although they do tend to refer to X being a major predator of Y as Yis afraid of X! I suppose there would be problems with blood and gore on kiddie TV cartoons.

Comments

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Jump Start Animal Adventure (PC based video game) is a good one for actually labelling predators (and that predator/prey means former eats the later) in a "non-scary way to kids".

Just a thought.

[dsrtao]

Z is aware of carnivorous eating habits, and that he is an omnivore. We had a discussion of predator/prey relationships in dinosaurs (and agreed that predator dinos in our house would eat dino chow). Also, it is forbidden to eat people. Well, Daddy is forbidden to eat people. Especially Z and E.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Likewise here. LB's been going to the butcher since he was a wee one, with the express lesson that "this used to be a cow, that used to be a hen, that used to be a pig" etc. (My plan being that my son will not believe food appears in plastic wrap at the groc store magically).

It was a piece of information, that's all. Helped him really grok the concept of predator/prey.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

And as far as "people" is concerned, given that black5sugars (aka HE Brand Thorsomething) taught LB that the correct response to "What is soylent green?" is "People" and then I had to explain what the heck that meant to him, he's got a basic understanding of SF, cannibalism, and that Mummy's friends are weird, but they laugh every time he says that, so okay.

[dsrtao]

Ja, some weirdness is essential to growing up in our culture.

Go Diego Go

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

That meddler Diego is a heavy weight on the food chain of the Amazon.

After Diego says, "Baby X is afraid of Predator Y," I'll often say, "Because Baby Xs are TASTY !!!