Gooooood day 
Last week we brought you along on our wonderful home school excursion a trek up Mt Macedon and it was the first time little bloke got his legs working fully. But this week little bloke took a backseat as little miss explores a petting Zoo.
It was alllll smiles around as we delved into the local petting Zoo that is a regular feature at the local farmers market that provides a real hands on experience for kids on animals they wouldn't normally get to see. Just about every animal in this petting Zoo is utilised in everyday life either food or clothing and even both. Except for the rats and mice although you may find them lurking around your house from time to time.
Funny story in relation to the mice and rats as we live in a developing area on the outskirts of Melbourne we are surrounded with fields and fields of current and former farming land. Many farmers still grow wheat and that is a known cause of mice infestations.
I've literally only ever really owned a cat to keep the mice and rats away and over the years my beloved Tom cat has brought home some rather unwanted guests. Little miss had no second thought in letting the presenter know that we too had mice although they weren't "kated, they were free ones". In case your were wondering she meant domesticated :(
We've also got a rat that myself and my neighbours either side of us have been trying to catch for quite some time without luck. Unlike mice I have come to learn, rats are smarter and this one uses the storm water system to get around and can even unlock the drain caps. For some reason, he won't take the bait and my cat has been unable to capture it. Soon I say, soon.
The staff on site were really helpful in taking the kids through all the animals and what they were called as well as talking about their native habitats and where they were from.
Although little miss always likes to throw in her favourite chickens are ones in bread crumbs, this comment often catches people off guard and sometimes they're not clear on the joke she is saying. Perhaps it isn't something that kids often come up with, I do miss her asking people questions like "can we eat it?" she almost has which animals we eat down pat.
Then there was also the wonderful not Llama that we use for wool, I say not Llama because I thought it was a Llama but as I was duly informed it is an alpaca which is a totally different breed of animal.
Make sure if you walking your kid through what animals are what you leave it upto the professionals as I got scalded for getting it wrong. Unfortunately I was parents number two hundred and thirty six to get it wrong that day and the staff had enough :)
All in all it was another wonderful field trip out learning about all the wonderful animals around us and learning a bit more about where our food and the things we use everyday come from.
This is an important lesson that all kids should learn as it helps prevent consumerism and enables kids once they become adults to make better informed decisions about their impacts on the planet and everything around them.