Any Parents of young children, 6 & under? Can I have your opinions please!

[Englishgothgirl]

Any Parents of young children, 6 & under? Can I have your opinions please.

We are planning to start our own business soon, and we are doing a bit of research.

We are hoping to run some Parent & Child classes, for parent's to introduce their children to a number of exotic animals such as snakes, Lizards, cockroaches etc. things that are often feared by adults and older children

The idea of these sensory classes is that these fist introductions will allow the children to grow up without fearing these animals

They will be able to see, touch and talk about various animals

Can parent's please tell me

How long would you want these classes to last?
- 30 mins
- 45 mins
- 1 hour
- other

Would you attend this class if there was one in your area?
- yes
- no
- depends (please explain)

What would you want to pay?
- ?

What animals would you want to focus on?
- snakes
- lizards
- cockroaches
- tarantulas/ scorpions (would not be able to touch these for health & safety reasons)

Thank You

[nhal039]

Thats such a neat idea, I would love to take my son.

As for prices I can not give you an accurate idea as our dollar and wages are so different so what I might say could be misleading. If it was in nz I would say $15 dollars but I think a type of season pass would be good ; )

As for class times, hmm another tricky question but I would say 1 hour.. but only talk for 5 mins at a time, the kids will not sit around for to long. Even thou you are 'primarily' showing animals I think a little 'play area' would be good so for those that loss interest can go and do there own thing while keeping the peace ; )

I think show all the animals, education is good ; ) Simple things like worms etc would go down well as well.

I am guessing you already know this but do expect some kids to scream and run around when they see certain animals.. I have seen kids do this in both excitement and/ or fear ; ) Also young kids (1 ish) tend to grab not 'pat'.

Great idea! I would love some thing like that here

[Like A Tea Spoon]

How long would you want these classes to last?

- other : Mostly, this gives the parents and kids a break if the experience gets too excited/overwhelming. You take into consideration phobias kids and parents may have about the animals in the class.

Would you attend this class if there was one in your area?

- depends (please explain) : I think I would if there was an educational twist to it, like maybe the kids get to color a page of the animal and identify the parts ( legs, antennae, and such )

What would you want to pay?

- ? : Thrifty parents would appreciate something inexpensive so making it a weekly, or even more frequent trips wouldn't break the bank.

What animals would you want to focus on?

- snakes
- lizards
- cockroaches
- tarantulas/ scorpions (would not be able to touch these for health & safety reasons)

I'd actually like there to be a wider range, maybe small birds, fish and such. Animals that normally aren't great children's pets because most are hands off type pets. It would help teach respect for all creatures.

[Eviecorn]

How long would you want these classes to last?
-45 minutes might be a good happy medium.

Would you attend this class if there was one in your area?
- I absolutely would!  My 2 year old loves all animals and having hands-on experience with them would be such a thrill for him.

What would you want to pay?
- I really don't know what to tell you on this one.  We haven't done classes like this yet.

What animals would you want to focus on?
- Any and all types of animals!  Lizards and snakes might be good for the younger set, as they are usually docile depending on the species and the way the animal's been raised.  I'm sure they'd love to see tarantulas too.

[kaoskat]

Sounds like an interesting idea!

[khyron]

http://www.animaladventures.net/programs

They're very popular.

[Englishgothgirl]

We are doing other sides to the business, including what you have mentioned above, but I was hoping for some feedbac on these parent / child sensory classes for under 6's :-)

[ashes]

I know my girls would LOVE that (my kids are ages 7, 5, 3, and 17 mo).  A longer class would suite the older ages (like 5 and 6), but a shorter class would be better for the younger ages, only because their attention spans are a bit shorter.  But small breaks within the classes are a must.  You don't want to bore the kids with a straight lecture for too long.  Being able to get close to the animal is a must, and if they are docile, either touching them or having something on hand that is similar to how they feel.  The idea for color pages is a great one.

I remember when I was around 3 or 4 I had a class at a local park where we got to have a tarantula walk over our hand - if we held still long enough, we got a spider stamp on our hand.  Also, when I was in preschool, we had a local group come with animals - I was over the moon with the boa constrictor, and actually had a picture taken with her draped over my shoulders.

You could also include other amphibians - like frogs and salamanders.  The kids might not be able to touch them, but if they got close to them in a tank they would still probably love it.

[Ivaness]

Why just 6 and below? My son is 8 and would like this.

Being the parent of a child with Autism, you could try to limit the size of the class too. My son isn't a fan of crowds, maybe you could have one class that is "normal" children and another class for kids with disabilities who would be interested as well. (Smaller class size, lower lighting, soft talking, the likes.)

[Sarahlacewing]

My son (2) isn't really inherently afraid of these things I don't think.  But I think I would have a strong negative reaction to some of them (like a tarantula) and that would make him afraid of them because he would see me being afraid of them.  Does that make sense? I think it's a good idea, but I personally would have no desire to be in close proximity to a tarantula. And I think it might be difficult to manage.

[Lillies_Mom]

Here in Missoula, we have something very similar called Animal Wonders.  Love, love, love them!  They do birthday parties, school shows ect.  Pricing and animals can be found online (http://www.animalwonders.org/).  We had them come to the preschool I work at and the kids had so much fun.  They brought a bunny, a prehensile tailed porcupine, a blue tongued skink, madagascar hissing cockroaches, a sand boa, a parrot and a couple ring necked doves.  We paid $200 for them to come to us and a 2 hour presentation. The kids really enjoyed getting to see all the different animals and having the bunny there was nice because that is an animal that almost no one is afraid of so even if they didn't like the other animals, they could still enjoy him and not feel left out
Sounds like you have a good idea as to what you want to accomplish!

Can parent's please tell me

How long would you want these classes to last?
- 30 mins--any under 2
- 45 mins--2 to 4s
- 1 hour-5+
- other--maybe offer 'party' packages, in case parents are interested in having them at a birthday party or similar
^^ that is all based on working with kids 6 and under; pretty well matched their attention span lol.  I'd also think about breaking the classes up by ages, so you can tailor to each age a little more (shorter, simpler presentations for young ones, longer more detailed for older kids)

Would you attend this class if there was one in your area?
- yes--if my child was fearful or unsure of animals, and it was cost effective
- no
- depends (please explain)

What would you want to pay?
-10-15, with a discount for multiple children and adult chaperones being way cheaper (2-5) as this would be geared towards the young ones

What animals would you want to focus on?
- snakes
- lizards
- cockroaches
- tarantulas/ scorpions (would not be able to touch these for health & safety reasons)
Any of them!  But also maybe bring in an animal that isn't exotic so if a child is too afraid, they can still have the sensory experience of feeling an animal they might not otherwise have the opportunity to.

[Englishgothgirl]

Sarahlacewing...

Research has proven children are not born with a fear of snakes but they learn it from parent's, they learn to react to a parent's reactions of an animal, even as young as 7 months

when tests were done they made babies watch images of snakes and coupled it with the voice of a fearful adult or a calm adult, those watching the images with the calm voice paid no attention but those with the fearful voice spent more time watching the screen, showing that the children pay attention to parent's reactions to learn from them, even as young as 7 months,

therefore in these specific classes, we would advise beforehand that any parents with fears do not attend, as it would be counterproductive to the class, we want to do the reverse, we want children to be in an environment seeing their parents NOT reacting to a variety of these animals, so they do not grow up with a learned fear

We will also be doing fun days, and educational days, parties etc, but this specific program is aimed at the younger age group for this classical conditioning to be effective.