a lesson on pets

Back in the Fall, Joy's class was doing a study on animals, and pets.  One afternoon, I reached into her cubby to gather her belongings, and pulled this out:

 

YIKES!  "What is this?" I asked, and Joy just looked up at me sheepishly.  Her teacher answered for her, "it's a gerbil - we're talking about animals this week."  Joy just nodded in agreement.   OH!, I thought, how silly of me to think it was just a toilet paper roll with some lint on it.  "Ok, great," I said, and we went to the car, while I tried worked very hard to stifle in my laughs.

On the same afternoon, when I picked up Jax, I reached into his cubby to gather his belongings, and pulled out a letter, informing parents of the PET SHOW his class would be hosting the next day.  It wasn't a live pet show - it was a pet show for stuffed animals or other favorites of the non-living type.  What a neat idea, I thought as I ushered him to the car, but, what in the world will we bring for the pet show??!!.  

On the drive home, we talked about the usual things:  what they ate for lunch, who they played with, what they learned, what they made.... and it was THEN that I had the most wonderful idea!!! --- JAX could take JOY's hand-crafted GERBIL to the pet show!!!!!!!!!!!

He did NOT approve of that idea.
Squashed.
Immediately.

He had apparently already contemplated the issue and had already made a selection mentally -- he wanted to take his "pet" squirrel... the one that was our guest at our recent front yard picnic. 
So, that is exactly what he did.  And, all of the kids loved it, including Joy, who got to be a pet show audience member.
I still think my idea was better.  I mean, how much more unique can you get?