Unio wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>          Please pardon the intrusion into your EMail boxes.  My boys got a
> jealous that Daddy was spending a little more time on the computer with Ashley
> rather than with them.  They wanted to say hi and let you know that they are
> being exposed to shell collecting too (whether they like or not).  Our whole
> family experiences shells; sometimes more than Mommy would like.  She tries to
> keep it confined to my study; a task she finds harder to perform every year.
> She has given in somewhat.  She allows us to maintain an aquarium which houses
> a few obligatory fish, but its population consists primarily freshwater
> mussels and snails.  Just last week we managed to sneak in a terrarium which
> is occupied by three species of terrestrial snails and a few obligatory
> plants.  So our kids are experiencing not just shells, but the whole animal as
> well.  It wasn't designed to be this way, but our whole family enjoys
> conchology.  I'm afraid that living with me they did not have much of a
> choice.  (Sound familiar to anyone?)
>       So since family involvement as a topic has just sort of "evolved", I'd
> like to hear from others who are involved in the hobby as a family.  Share
> your family experiences.
>
> Doug Shelton
> Mobile, Alabama
Doug our whole family was involved and still is involved in shells.
Our daughter (who is now married and teaches science to 7th graders)
started collecting shells and learning the latin names at two years old.
When she walked into her first shell shop in Santa Barbara and said
Cypraea spadicea...we thought the owners would pass out!
 
We played a game with her every evening...by taking the labels off of
our shells on exhibit in the living room and letting her put them back
in the right place.
 
She now exhibits and uses her shells in the class room.  Several times
our whole family worked on Shell Show Exhibits.  Our daughter gave her
final in humanities on the nautilus shell and was asked to present the
oral report to every class that day.
 
We often use your hobby to educate in schools, churches, scouts, 4-H,
etc.
Bobbi