Greening Sam and Avery

bug week - green mama blog hop

So since it is bug week and our garden is full of both the helpful and not-so-helpful types of bugs I thought I would share a resource for how to deal with the not-so-helpful garden bugs, the GREEN way!

This is a great site if you like homemade products and aren't afraid of trying things out to see what works best for you. There are lots of homemade recipes for pest control methods that are safe for the family and the environment. This is also just a really cool site, so go check it out here!

Luckily the pests have not been that bad for us yet this year so I have not had to use anything! Woohoo. But I am sure they will find the garden soon enough.

 

Welcome to the Green Mama Blog Hop!

Please only join this hop if you deem your blog as 'green'. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or if you're a pro.. this Green Mama Blog Hop is for you!

My goal is to have more and more people join each week! But that can't happen without your help. If you could please post the button on your blog, as well as in a post, that would be great! Thanks so much for your involvement! I want us 'Green Mamas' to befriend each other and be there for questions or support.

<a href="http://www.giveawaysandlife.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq300/sashica13/green-house-2-1.jpg" /></a>

~Lovely Hostesses~

And Then There Were 4...

Greening Sam and Avery

The Little Hedgehog

~Featured Blog~

Untrained Hair Mom

Each week, there will be a fourth, Featured Blog to be followed as well. To qualify to be the Featured Blog, you will need to participate in all of the guidelines. I will pick one at random from all qualifiers. I will email you the Monday before the Hop, if you are chosen.

Hopping Guidelines:

MANDATORY:

* Add your blog's home page to the Linky list! I will be monitoring the blogs to make sure we only have 'green', family-friendly blogs involved.  

* Follow the 3 hosts, Featured Blog and the blog ahead of yours. Make sure to leave comments on each of the blog so they can follow you back! The more you follow, the more will follow you back!

OPTIONAL:

(You don't have to do these to enter the hop, but you must do both to qualify for the Featured Blog position)

* Grab the new Green Mama Blog Hop button and place it on your home page.

* Put the button into a post on your blog. Then leave a comment on this Hop post with the link.

This hop will open each Tuesday night and will be open all week. It will start over each week, so keep coming back each week to enter!

Welcome to the Green Mama Blog Hop! Enjoy!

bug week - ladybugs

 
Thought a theme week was in order! I am hoping to be able to share some good books, activities and crafts that preschool teachers might be able to use this coming Fall in their classrooms.

We started off the week with ladybugs. Unfortunately it was raining on and off this morning and SO hot that outside time was a bust for bug hunting.

We read both non-fiction and fiction books today all about lady bugs.

Yes, this book is kind of silly and has the ladybug doing human-like activities but it also includes lots of good natural history information about ladybugs. After reading the book you can go back and ask them why the leaf says "thank you" to the ladybugs for eating the aphids. And as a side note you can also talk about what the grouchy ladybug could have done to prevent being slapped by the whale (shared the aphids with the friendly ladybug at the beginning of the day!).

This Starting Life series is a great one for the preschool age. The information is simple enough for them to grasp and the pictures really show so much of what the kids are learning in the text.

The things I focused on with Sam today about ladybugs included:

• Ladybugs have spots on their backs but not every ladybug has the same number of spots and the spots can be different sizes and shapes.
• Ladybugs are insects so they have six legs.
• Ladybugs have hidden wings that they use to fly.
• Ladybugs lay eggs.

Since we are just focusing on each bug for one day I am keeping the information pretty simple and just repeating what we are learning many times throughout the day as we read, play and create.

 
Toys like replicas, puppets (we got this finger puppet from our library!), matching games or puzzles can be great ways to incorporate play into learning about specific topics. We used this puppet to examine the bugs body parts and pretend to be a ladybug eating bugs on our houseplants.

Then when Sam's friends came over for dinner tonight I had a ladybug craft project ready for them.

 
 
 
 
Super simple craft. I had the bodies, head and legs cut out and assembled already. You could allow the kids to do this part too but that was not the part I wanted to focus on. I also had some "spots" cut out and ready for the kids. I showed them a couple of pictures of ladybugs and told them how ladybugs don't all have the same number or size of spots. Their task was to add the spots to the ladybugs. They could also use scissors to try and cut out their own spots. I think they enjoyed the cutting out the spots the best.

I think this was a great first day to our bug week! Looking forward to a lot more fun activities and learning ahead.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Obviously getting outside to catch the real thing and observe them in their natural habitat is the best method of teaching (in my mind) but for a lot of teachers or parents that might not be possible. Books, crafts, toys and activities can be great alternatives or things to do in addition to seeing the bug in real life.

If you have slightly older kids involved alongside your preschooler you could easily add a few more indepth books designed for older readers, add more detailed facts to focus on for them (what they eat, lifecycle, where they live, etc.) and/or have them help you in creating the ladybugs for the craft really focusing with them on all of the body parts that the ladybug has.

Here is another bug craft that could easily be adjusted to make ladybugs.

Would love to know if you have taught about ladybugs in your home or at school before and what crafts, books or activities you used! Share links in your comments too if you have blogged about it!

 

Day 344: outdoor play link up

So, once again I am failing to come up with an amazing idea to share with you all on the link up. I swear one of these weeks I will have something that compares to all the great ideas that people are linking up!  The ideas out there are just INCREDIBLE! Loving all the inspiration.

Here are some photos from one of our exploring trips this week.

 
 
 

And there are two blog posts this week that I think you should all check out if you haven't already from last week's link up.

The first I just LOVE because it is a mama after my own heart...a bug crazy mom! Diving into a bug teachable moment is awesome! Learning Table shared their bug moment here.

Gardening has become a huge part of our daily lives and so this post from Nurture Store really ranked high with me. Love the idea of creating a small size garden just for kids. Taking this idea outside and including dolls and cars would be so fun!

 

  How did you spend your week outdoors? 

Share your outdoor play with us. Here’s just a few guidelines for sharing.

> Any kind of outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up

> Please do not share any competitions or promotions

> Please link back to this post

> Each week we will feature an activity from the previous week. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link from your post to be republished.

Thanks for sharing.

Add this Outdoor Play Link-up to your Post

Day 340: greening as a working parent

I am blessed to be able to stay at home with my girls. It is a luxury that not many people get to have these days and there are some serious perks with being a SAHM. But I do miss going to work, being active as an environmental educator and being a part of the outside world. This summer I am getting a little bit of that chance! And today was my first day of work. Six hours at work and the girls home with a sitter.

Knowing I would be exhausted when I got home the thought occurred to me, why can't I plan something nature related for the girls to do with the sitter? I pulled out a craft I have had in my back pocket for a while now.

 
The girls made butterflies today.

Then I set out a few books to go with the craft for them to read.

Two great books that the girls love that was paired with a a fun craft! Sam couldn't wait to tell me all about their day. It made me feel so much better knowing that even though I wasn't there they were still learning and growing.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Not always possible to plan out activities and things for the kiddos to do with the sitter and you can't always guarantee that the sitter will actual do them. But this is one way to try and keep your kids learning about the natural world even when you can't be with them.

On days when I am not around this summer I am going to combine this idea with also making more time in the evenings (like after dinner and before bedtime) to have more outside time. I want to use that time more effectively for family fun and outdoor exploring.

The butterfly craft is super simple. Just cut out of construction paper (or paperboard works better cause it is stronger) a butterfly shape. Then cut small squares out of tissue paper to bunch up and glue onto the cut out. This is so simple even Avery could scrunch up the tissue paper and help stick them on. Older kids can try to make patterns and designs on the butterfly wings. A very adaptive and fun activity that is also super easy to throw together in a pinch.

Day 339: creating a bug lover

 

 
This is my niece Bailey.

This morning while breakfast was being cooked for 11 people I took the wild crazy big girls out in the yard to do some bug hunting.

 

St. Louis is being overwhelmed right now with cicadas. They are a BIG flying bug and they are everywhere; we heard multiple references this weekend to the biblical locust plague.  May not be quite that many, but it seems close! With cicadas you get cicada "shells".

 
Which is what we were out looking for this morning. On a normal summer morning in St. Louis you can hunt for a long time and maybe find one of these cool little things clinging to a tree but today they were everywhere!

 
 Sam and Parker were enjoying the walk around the yard, commenting on what we were seeing and looking for things but not all that enthusiastic. Bailey was another story. She could not get enough! She wanted to be the one holding them, finding most of them, finding other bugs and super excited about each find.

Like this rolly-polly that instantly curled up in a ball when she picked it up.

 
 

Our walk endly pretty quickly as we were called in for breakfast, then the joys and chaos of a Sunday morning with five kids (aged 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!) took over and we weren't able to get back out again. But after lunch, we we were packing up our car to head out for the long drive home we couldn't find Bailey to give her one more hug. As we pulled out of the driveway we saw her bucket in hand combing the grass! My grin spread from ear to ear. Though her mom may think it is gross and her dad may think I am crazy, I LOVE that she got into searching for these little "shells".

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Tips on raising an adventurous bug hunter -

1. Exposure! Bugs may not be your thing but it is so important to expose young kids to EVERYTHING. So, if you aren't up for a bug walk or pond critter catching session check into public programs or camps where someone else could show your kids this amazing little world.

2. Mix up the exposure. While bug walks in the backyard or setting up bug boards can be great for little ones it is also very important to mix up where you go, what you look for and how you look at them. Try out different catching methods, different jars or containers to hold them in, different parks or natural areas and types of bugs.

3. Don't let them see you squirm! I am not a snake person BUT I work really hard to not show my discomfort around the girls when we see a snake on a trail or find one in the backyard. I show excitement and eagerness to learn and observe. I do not want them to grow up thinking anything in the natural world is yucky or have an unnecessary fear of insects or animals. Understanding when they need to be careful, not touch or keep their distance is something totally different and I do work hard to teach them that too.

Day 326: pond class at preschool

The pond came to Sam's preschool today! Sam, Avery and I had made several trips to the local pond in the last few days to collect lots of fun things to show her classmates. I had a big rubbermaid container filled with the critters, lots of little containers, a few nets and some magnifying glasses for the kids to use.

We showed off several different sizes and stages of tadpoles. Some of the kids had fun trying to hold the tadpoles and all of them loved watching them swim around.

The dragonfly nymph and the snails were the other two big hits. I showed off the large jaw and mouth of the dragonfly nymph and had the kids compare it to their own jaws. We also talked a lot about how the snails (and turtles) carry their houses on their backs. Then we pretended to be snails by squatting down on the ground and when we got scared we pulled our limbs in to form a little ball.

The kids (those that wanted to) even got a chance to put the net in the big container to see what they could catch.

The most interesting part is that the kids lost interest much more quickly than I expected but then one at a time slowly came back wanting to check out the critters again, try out the net again or talk to me about something. I was glad they were all showing interest just wish they had stuck around longer at the beginning.

In other news...

We got our first attempt at a water wall all set up today.

 
Still working out the details though. Would love any advice on what to use to collect the water at the bottom and what Sam and Avery should use to pour the water in at the top. Started a conversation over on the Facebook page and would love for you all to jump in!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

One thought that hit me while I was at Sam's school is that I am raising "the weird kid". She held all the critters, asked to use her hands to catch things in the container and stood there captivated with what I was talking about long after other kids had wandered away. Other kids jumped back, acted squeemish or said "yuck" when I asked if they wanted to touch something or hold something, she was all too eager! What have I done?!

I have come to conclusion of SO WHAT!? I think every little kid is weird in one way or another. Some are super picky eaters, others insist on wearing something everyday or refuse to wear something, etc. Every little kid has something. So what if Sam's weird thing happens to be a hyper-enthusiasm for the things that other kids think are gross or are afraid of.  It could be worse...

Day 137: exploring the yard waste

The Circa toys giveaway is still going on! Four more days to get in all your entries. 

Today Sam, Avery, and I wanted to do some exploring in the backyard.  The only place to find insects and the fun stuff that Sam likes is in our yard waste pile, so why not.  I grabbed a pitch fork and started turning it.  The insects that we found were amazing.  Sam had a blast.  She grabbed her little shovel and helped me dig too.  Avery crawled around. With lots of decaying grass, leaves and other stuff around I had to be much more careful about what she was putting in her mouth.

So besides a lot of great insects, worms and spiders today we also found

 
"Mommy Polly's (our golden retriever) poop is really little today!" HA!

 
 Sam found these treasures and decided the squirrels did not need to eat these and that she needed them.  What safer place is there to store them then her swing!

 
Lost this gardening tool while weeding last spring! Apparently I had thrown it out with the weeds.  So glad it is back.

 
And finally we dug THIS out of the yard waste pile!  Sam was so excited.  Who knew we really had buried treasure.  Must have dug down past our yard waste and gotten into the previous owner's stuff.  So funny.

A little time spent exploring in our backyard ended with some serious fun with a flat basketball.  Overall some great outdoor fun.  Have you explored your yard waste lately?

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Not only is turning and digging in your yard waste pile (if you have one!) good exercise and a great way to find bugs but it is also good for the yard waste.  Just like compost the more it gets turned and watered the quicker it will break down. Plus turning the dead leaves and grass can attract a lot of great birds to your yard that want to eat the bugs you are finding and the seeds as well. 

So go get digging!

Day 47: more prizes from acorn naturalist

Have you heard about the giveaway this week?  If not check back to day 44 to read all the details of what is going on!

SO I am posting this from out of town and of course forgot to bring my own computer which has all the pictures on it.  Darn it!  This means I don't have any of the cute pictures of Sam and I playing with the prizes to show you.   But I will probably come back next week and post them if you are interested.  Otherwise I will have the links to the prizes below so you can check them out.

Anyway, one of the prizes is Acorn Naturalists Preschool Memory Game.  We have several other versions of memory at our house but neither of those worked as well as this one!  They are either 1) not age appropriate or 2) the cards are so flimsy that after playing with it only a few times they are falling apart.  This one is both age appropriate for Sam (even though the box says 3+ she played it perfectly and LOVED it) and the cards are a really thick board material.  The pictures are simple but colorful and very cute.  We played for quite a long time!  This is a must have if your child likes to play games.

The last prize is one of my favorites!!  It is the Fandex Bug Guide . This is a simple but VERY informative version of a bug identification book. Instead of being in book form the "pages" fan out.  It is a bit difficult for Sam's little hands to fold the pages back together in the right order but the pictures are SO amazing that I just help her with how to work it.  There is a ton of information on each side of the bug pages and big pictures that depict the bugs perfectly, showing off every detail.  For younger kids this is great because the big, bright pictures make it very easy for them to match a bug to the right picture and for older kids there is a lot more information for them to learn.  A win-win for any age!

This is a very boring way to tell you about this great prizes and I am kicking myself that I don't have the pictures to show you.  So please go visit the website and check out the pictures there. 

If you haven't read Day 44 about the giveaway be sure to go back and get all the details.  But the basics are that there are three items being combined into ONE prize; the two listed above and the stacking blocks that I described on Day 46. I am super excited about this prize because there is something for every age child! To get a chance to win simply leave a comment on a guest blogger's post (one comment per guest blogger).  Each comment equals one chance to win.  If you want another chance to win go check out the Acorn Naturalist website and then come back here and leave me a comment telling me one thing that you liked! 

Okay, GO READ AND COMMENT!

Day 42: worms

Digging digging digging!  This is how Sam and I spent the morning.  The worms were not cooperating at it wasn't until we had made five or six pretty good size holes in our garden that we actually found one little worm. 

We watched it move on the paper, we held it and talked about where it lived.  Sam liked holding it and then dropping it back it the hole "to go find its babies".  She is very into thinking that everything has a big family right now.

After we had found and watched the worm for a while we decided to try and move like worms. 
Which turned into a twenty minute session of acting like every other animal she could think of!

This is flying like a bird.

And a quick photo with mom!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Giving a kid a shovel and free range to do whatever they want can be an exciting and amazing experience.  You just never know what they will find or which of their finds will be the most exciting.  Sam found lots of rocks, roots and other bugs that she was very interested in. She loved the digging in general.

Day 39: pond netting

I am back home now after 36 hours with 13 boy scouts!  YIKES!  It was a certainly a challenge but also a lot of fun. We did a TON of stuff so that they could earn four badges in two days. Craziness.  One of the things that we did was pond netting.  So since I had that on my brain today I decided why not try it again in a better spot with Sam.

Possibly one of my most successful green activities yet. 

Sam was captivated and before I knew it almost an hour had gone by!!  We went to a nearby pond with our net, jar and magnifying glasses. I think one of the reasons that it worked so well is because I really stayed hands off and just let her do what she wanted with the net and the water.  Only when she asked me to help or to take a turn did I step up. 

Had to include this picture because it is SO my daughter right now; walking at her own pace, singing the ABCs and just looking off into space.   

I even decided that if she got too close to the water I wouldn't step in but just let her go and see what happened.  Is it really that big of a deal if she falls in?  Don't worry the water was only like six inches deep!
 

We caught lots of snails, a few scuds but this guy was the one that sold the experience for both of us!

A very big dragonfly nymph!   Sam loved it the second that she saw it and without my coaching her asked if she could hold it.  I believe her exact words were "Mommy, he wants to sit in my hand!"  She wasn't scared at all and when she was done she put him back in the water.  I was a proud momma. 

The reason I think this was such a success is because 1) she stayed engaged for a very long time, 2) she was really able to do it all on her own (she even caught things all on her own!), 3) she seemed interested in hearing about what she was catching and wanted to learn. 

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

There is no age range for this activity. I have done it with children Sam's age and with full grown adults.  The idea is always the same, stick a net in and see what you get, it is just the level of learning and understanding that changes. 

At Sam's age the focus is just on them discovering that there are teeny tiny things living in the water and mud.  It is great for them to get their hands dirty, see some new and interesting critters and get to interact in a new way with water.  For older kids you can focus more on what they are catching; where in the pond they catch the most, what those things look like, how they move, etc.  If you want to expand the activity even further here is a great site that had listings of some of the most common water critters.  Check out EEK!  It is run by the WI Department of Natural Resources and has great pictures, information and activities. 

Oh yeah....and thanks for the comment love for my first guest blogger!!