The Last Laugh: Pets I've had, pets I want to have - Fairfield Daily Republic

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:48 AM PDT

Tony Wade: The Last Laugh

I have had a number of pets over my 56 years and today I wanted to look at pets I've had and ones I'd like to have.

Pets I've had

Dogs: These include Sandy, Cocoa, Missy, Smokey, Brutus and my current canine, Chunky Tiberius Wade, who is a Chiweenie.

I think Chunky is hands-down the smartest dog I've ever had. He was naturally a lil' wary at first, yet within an hour of us getting him from the Solano County Animal Shelter five years ago, he was snoring deeply on my chest.

Chunky knows what I'm telling him to do, he just often chooses to wait until I repeat it three times before complying to show who's boss.

Cats: I am not a huge cat person. I love kittens because they are playful and I like how they fight with their claws and smack things, but unfortunately kittens become cats.

Most of the time cats are in their own dimension and only deign to join the human sphere when it is convenient – usually around meal times.

When our daughter Kaci was a lil' girl we got her a kitten on her birthday, Pearl Nut Kitty. I chose her middle name.

Nut was in honor of the only other cat I ever had – a black kitten I got from a bad pet store in Solano Mall in the 1980s. Nut would crack me up because she would whiz around me at top speed then stop on a dime and stare at me while leaning sideways. It was hysterical.

Mice: We had mice as kids and the irony is that while we loved the ones in our cage, we were horrified by their cousins who wandered around our house. One night, one was in the trash can between me and my brother Kelvin's beds and we screamed for our dad. He grabbed a tool to vanquish the unwelcome rodent. It was a plunger. He plunged it to death. It was horrible and gave me PTSM (Post-Traumatic Smooshed Mouse) disorder.

Parakeet: My parakeet Bruce, named after Bruce Banner, the Incredible Hulk's alter-ego because he was green, was a punk. All he did was eat, poop and rudely and continuously chirp when I played the radio (except – inexplicably – during the song "Easy" by the Commodores). He would try to bite me if my hand came near the cage, which started my ornithophobia. He died. I shed zero tears.

Fish: My wife and I had an aquarium at our first apartment that was situated right near the kitchen table. That was a mistake. One by one they got some fish sickness and died. The only thing grosser than seeing a floating deceased fish while eating breakfast was seeing one that the survivors were going all Donner Party on.

Snake: After all the fish died, we got a little garter snake. A buddy had a king snake years before and I loved to see him feed it mice we got from Thiessen's Pet store. Our little garter snake was not big enough to eat mice, but would eat little fish we put in his bowl. But he only lived for like two weeks. My wife was pregnant with our daughter and we worried about our track record of taking care of living things. Fortunately, our daughter didn't eat live fish, but Similac so we were OK.

Pets I'd like to have

Velociraptor: Yes, they are super-smart killing machines and I sucked at keeping a parakeet, fish and a garter snake alive, but I totally rocked having a Groot Chia Pet so I think I'm ready.

49ers fan: OK, before you say this is human trafficking or slavery or something, that ain't what I'm talking about. I mean the first rule of humor column writing is . . . well, you don't talk about humor column writing. But the second rule is that you don't bring up topics like human trafficking or slavery, which I guess this paragraph violates.

Anyway, this ain't that. In fact, I got the idea, from all places, Walt Disney. If Goofy, who appears to be a dog, can take Pluto, who is definitely a dog, for a walk on a leash, than I should be able to have my very own pet Niners fan that I could make do tricks like play dead just like their team did at the end of the Super Bowl.

Dweezil: This is a custom-genetically engineered pet I imagined. It would be a cross between a dog, a zebra and a weasel. How do you get them to breed? Well, it's complex, but involves aphrodisiac hay/Milk Bones treats and ample doses of Barry White and The Love Unlimited Orchestra.

Reach Fairfield writer Tony Wade at [email protected].

St. Louis School receives funding for “dramatic play” - Greensburg Daily News

Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:55 AM PDT

BATESVILLE – Kindergarten students are discovering how to learn through play at St. Louis School.

Last year, St. Louis Kindergarten teachers introduced a new station during their reading/math centers called the Dramatic Station. Dramatic play is pretend play that involves acting out real-world situations and taking roles of characters.

At St. Louis, the Kindergarten teachers, Amanda Farmer and Krista Konradi, like to use unstructured dramatic play where students have their own roles and play scenarios. During their math and reading stations, Farmer and Konradi found that students absolutely loved dramatic play.

As you know, funding for any school item is far from cheap. St. Louis School Kindergarten teachers had already spent a great deal in order to open up their "Pancake Station" where students set up their own Pancake Restaurant.

The main reason dramatic play is important is that it teaches self-regulation: coordinating with others to make plans; provides an emotional outlet: and students have a hard time thinking internally. Dramatic play allows students to explore their thoughts and feelings, work on conflict resolution, work through differences and arrange a compromise during disagreements.

This is especially beneficial for literacy instruction as students are supported in the following ways: Students are exposed to functional print which can also lead to reading comprehension as students can reenact familiar storybook scenes; supports students and encourage their ideas: teachers and parents can learn a lot about students through observations of pretend play and determine what makes students happy, scared or frustrated.

Kindergarten teachers at St. Louis wanted to introduce dramatic play because they knew their students lacked that emotional and social development within their combined 15+ years of teaching. They also knew it was important to give students an opportunity to work together to act out real-world situations.

Opportunity arose when they received an email about the Joan and John Hillenbrand Vision Fund for Innovation, who later funded their Dramatic Play program. Our Kindergarten centers now include puppets, Space, Fire Station, Theater, Construction, Flower/Garden Shop, Dinosaur, Beach, Post Office, Ice Cream, Pet Vet Animal Hospital, Farm, Camping, Pumpkin Patch, Pet Store, Grocery Store, Home Living, Ice Skating Rink, Baking, Aquarium, Birthday Party, Auto Shop, Zoo, Pizza Restaurant and Apple Orchard.

As stated from Amanda Farmer and Krista Konradi at St. Louis, "Our goal is to include dramatic play/imaginative play daily in the kindergarten classrooms. We have already seen how effective it is and how well it has helped our students with conflict resolution. With dramatic play, students will gain understanding of how the world works, understand cause and effect, time relationship, how to get along with others, how to problem solve and entertain one's self. We are so thankful for the generous donation from the Joan and John Hillenbrand Vision Fund who turned our dream into reality."

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