Well this year we had an adventure... 3 small kids and 3 kinds of critters. The big kids loved it and Isabelle even was watching things too. :) Katherine and Joseph are asking to add more and more every year. I told them once we moved into the new house and had a dedicated Homeschool area we would think about doing it again and do more animals. But here is what we did this year...
Lady Bugs
Joseph letting a lady bug go.
The ladybug did not want to leave my Joseph! She went crawling from his hand clear to his shoulder and then he asked me to get it away before it climbed on his face.
Katherine releasing a ladybug.
Both big kids watching the lady bugs getting ready to let them go. Katherine is holding one and Joseph is watching to see if any more are starting to come out.
Isabelle and Katherine watching the lady bugs. We did not let Isabelle get to close because we were afraid she would either squish them or eat them.
Caterpillars to Butterflies
Thought I took some pictures of them in the different stages but cannot locate them. :(
This is one of the 4 we ended up releasing. One stayed in the habitat much longer than the others and we were not sure if it would make it or not. We went out a couple hours later (giving it time without kids around, and the kids got a snack) and it was gone.
Earth Worms
This was out new project this year! I had never done earthworms before and did not know what to expect. It was fun for all of us!
This is how the earthworms came to us. They are encased.
To remove the encasing you soak them in warm water for 5 minutes, rinse them off, and if needed soak again. Took several times and I said that is as good as it looks like it is going to get!
After several times soaking and rinsing this is what it looked like. Sorry kinda blurry...
The little apple seed looking things were the actual earth worm "eggs" (not sure that is what you call them). There were some that were already out so we QUICKLY finished setting up the habitat and put them in.
Somewhere I have some pictures with us putting some of the baby earthworms in the habitat, but they are probably with the missing butterfly pictures.
RELEASE Day! Joseph holding one of the smaller worms.
Joseph letting a worm go in the garden and Katherine holding another.
Joseph watching the earthworm bury itself and Isabelle trying to figure out what is going on and how she can get in on it!
Katherine holding one of the bigger earthworms we released.
Joseph was a MASTER worm finder! Even when we thought we were done and had found all we were going to he found several more!
Both old kids holding holding worms in each hand! We must have had 20-30 earthworms we released into the front gardens!
After a little bit I dumped the dirt out and let the kids find more of them themselves. Isabelle was trying to knock it over anyway, plus it let them go digging for their own instead of me trying to find all of them. We spread the dirt out some and the kids found them and relocated them to different parts of the garden area. Joseph was so careful with them and did a great job for his first time holding them by himself!
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