Let's go to the Zoo!

To get rid of kids from the screens is a big battle, I know, but LO isn't that addicted to screens. But that was an old story😭. Now in this lock-down, Oh my God!, I'm constantly struggling to keep him off the screen😕. 

So when I find an activity that he loves and keeps him engaged for hours, I feel a big comfort😊! Activity with animals is always a big hit with LO. But this time I don't want to make him bored with the usual free play. So we decided on this! Me and LO were thinking to make a miniature zoo model for so many months. Right time to implement it fell in this lock-down! 

LO and his cousin brother (my nephew) are so fond of animals and animal toys. They would literally play 'only' with animal toys for months😮! And we missed my nephew a lot while doing this setup. He got assurance from me right in the beginning that we should build this zoo again, once his cousin is back after lock-down!

To start with, I browsed the map of few real zoo's on Earth to get some idea. And finally we decided to make this setup. LO named the Zoo as "Indian Care Zoo"!! What does that mean? He had no answer though!😀

We started by drawing a rough map of the zoo and decided what all animals to have, the habitats, vehicles if any, figurines👫, blocks, color papers etc. We used pistachio shells for making boundaries of certain habitats, wooden and magnetic blocks for some, trays, vehicle track for the shuttle station🚉 and so on. Let me list out the habitats we had on our zoo.

1. Congo Gorilla Forest🐒
2. Lion's Den🐾
3. Butterfly garden🐝
4. Children's park🐕🐄
5. Tiger's Mountain🐅
6. African plains 🐂🐴(along with the shuttle train)🚊
7. Aquatic animals🐙🐬
8. World of Reptiles🐍
9. Jungle land🐘
10. Jurassic park
11. Insect's house🐛
12. Car parking 🚘

Trust me, it would take hours to complete this activity! A real 'time killer' for kids this summer! 

We had a river named "Indian River", named by LO, flowing between children's park and tiger mountain, and built few bridges across it.

LO helped me out in writing out the name boards of few habitats and sticking the same. We had a good discussion on deciding the names of the habitats and yeah also about what habitats to have!

And finally..... !

After completing few setups, he asked if I could help out and yeah I did to keep the momentum of the play going😊(Mommies are always willing to help😁)

Jungle land and Aquatic animals:

Jurassic Park and Car Parking:

 We had even ticket counter and security people at the gate. And also look at our traffic police man!😁

Children's Park and Tiger Mountain:
We placed all the domestic animals in the Children's Park. A separate Hippo house made of magnetic blocks nearby it. The Tiger Mountain had only the Tigers, Leopards, Jaguar and Cheetah.
And do you know what's the difference between Leopard, Jaguar and Cheetah? Click here to know!

African Plains:
The African Plains had Elephant, Giraffe, Deer, Fox, Zebra, etc. This habitat is aided by a shuttle to go on a Jungle safari!

The Congo Gorilla Forest: 

LO placed few gorillas, monkeys, hyenas on it. I would strongly recommend you to visit Bronx zoo's site to explore interesting facts about Congo Gorilla Forest.

LO didn't allow me to cleanup the zoo for the next two days!

Initially we did animal wash. Yes! Put your kids to work!😊

Please leave your comments in the comment box below.

Happy Parenting 😊😊