One of the odd things about having a small child is the constant need to talk about domestic animals with them. True, you could probably avoid it if you were so inclined, but it might have a negative impact on their socialisation.
I realised this during 'Rhyme Time' last month. I sing 'Old MacDonalds Farm' and 'The Farmer in the Dell' to JD along with various other animal based songs. But frankly it was all getting a bit boring and so I introduced another lot of more interesting animals. The echidna, camel, iguana and various other creatures now inhabit Old MacDonalds farm, making it more educational for JD and more interesting for me. Though I still haven't really figured out what noise an echidna makes.
And on one very hot and long afternoon when there were teeth coming, 'The Farmer in the Dell' became a narrative framework for an involved story including the Albatross, his friend the Mongoose and the Mongoose's friend Switch who had a small army of cockroaches in a cardboard box, which he carried about his person. This was unsettling for the Albatross, but due to social constraints he felt unable to protest. However, the army of cockroaches proved its usefulness by forcing Pirate Sam the Man to stand down from his piracy, at least as it related to Albatross, Mongoose and Switch. All ended happily.
The problem is though, that when we were at Rhyme Time, the older children were given the opportunity of choosing an animal from a bag and saying what that animal was for Old MacDonald's farm. One child pulled a duck out of the bag and announced it was a duck. I thought, "How boring. Why does it need to be a duck? Why can't it be an albatross?" Which led me to the realisation that if I keep finding odd and interesting animals on Old MacDonalds Farm, JD will come to expect them. He'll want dolphins, elephant beetles and moles when he calls out his favourite, and that is if we manage to teach him in time that griffins, murlocs and yetis are actually not real.
I came home from Rhyme Time frustrated. Levor said to me, "So what do we learn from this little adventure?" I said, "That Rhyme Time is limited and needs its horizons expanded."
I don't think that the answer I was meant to give...
I went to the sea-side with my mummy and daddy. Daddy did all the heavy lifting and mummy took lots of photos.
I held daddy's hands and walked in the water, which was really cool. I wanted to keep walking and walking because I really liked the water. Daddy kept pulling me back. I can see there's going to be some issues we'll have to work through.
Then I played in the sand some more and got to at least eat some of that, but sand is more fun if you cover your arms and legs with it, and make patterns in it with your hands. 
One of the odd things about having a small child is the constant need to talk about domestic animals with them. True, you could probably avoid it if you were so inclined, but it might have a negative impact on their socialisation.
