Ecclecticmum Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Hello :D We're starting our new year on 21st May, so basically I have figured out we can have neither the Butterfly or the Frog Life Cycles happening in our house. I will explain why below, but am looking for alternative resources/ideas (Crafts, Videos, Activities, Books anything & everything, lots of fun stuff to engage the younger ones as well) So if anyone has any suggestions (do note that I live in Aus, so I can't really get kits with "earthy" stuff like soil, wood, seeds etc posted to me) We are going to be using Real Scien Odyssey & Elemental Science, so I can't remember which one suggested what etc. NO need to Mention Aquariums, we already do know about lifecycle exhibits etc at the zoos, and aquariums :D I want resources for home. (Our local aquarium is 3 1/2 hours away, so we will go when we go to the Mesopotamia Exhibit later this year.) Frogs - Well turns out in my state, frogs are protected. They are not allowed to be touched, collected (no matter what lifecycle stage they are at) or probably looked at for too long (lol, but seriously the lists of don'ts was like a mile long). Now I could go through the research insititute in my state and they could courier me a frog life cycle kit, BUT I would have to jump through multiple hoops, and its a maybe, as we are not classified as a school, so therefore don't get the same rights towards the kit. Then after all that, we can't even let a native frog go, so even if that frog was indigienous to that area, we have to keep whatever the institute gives me for its entire life (not a possibility here) or do a 10 hour round car trip trek to give it back once its at adult maturity (also not possible). So basically that leaves out frogs Butterflies - Our new school year starts 21st May. The cut-off for a buttefly life-cycle kit is 1st May. So thats one reason, another is that it is already quite fresh and cold here, so even if we got it now, I don't think its a suitable temp for it. Theres also the fact it would have to be outside (not an option, as I said..too cold) or inside, which means we would have to go for the primary classroom metal grill cage instead of mesh, as we have to cats, even then we would have to put the butterflies in a room where the cats couldn't get to, this grill cage butterfly kit is also about 10x the mesh kit, at about $300, so its just not really financially a suitable option (north worth cost vs problems etc). So those are the reasons why we can't have the live lifecycles. But we are looking for any fun alternatives :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Queen Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Fruit flies! Find them, capture them in a jar, throw in some food, cover with a wad of the fluff used to stuff pillows and stuffed animals. They'll get plenty of air but wont be able to fly away. We couldn't see their eggs but we saw their maggots and then the flies died. The maggots got still and Presto! We had flies. It was Amazing! We kept it for a few generations. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frugalmama Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Ants? Worms? Those are on our list - we did butterflies this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssavings Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 We have a set-up of Montessori butterfly life cycle materials that my kids love. We've done lived butterflies, too, but these materials have been great, too... Butterfly life cycle model. Butterfly life cycle layer puzzle. Foam life cycle model. Life cycle stamp set. Life cycle sequence cards. Life cycle three-part cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskelly Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Ladybugs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 mealworms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 I think any "live" pets are out of the question right now.....although flies, there is certainly plenty of those around, theres about a billion currently stuck to the fly curl papers LOL (we live on a farm, next to a dairy farm so flies are EVERYWHERE). As for stick insects, nope. No praying mantas, no stick insects. Unless you want me to have a heart attack LOL. I'm afraid (very, very sorry here, almost to tears point) I have actually killed a couple. After I found out since we moved here, many things I previously though DIDN'T fly, all of a sudden did.....well, it was self-defence. And the stick insects follow me, I have had one perch on my head and didn't realize it was there till I went back inside and it started "clicking" with its legs. Let's leave the phobia at that shall we? Basically I don't want live animals about, as our cats are farm cats, and taught to catch insects by any means necessary (they are indoor cats for catching any insects, rodents, birds (they don't hurt the birds, just duly hold them whilst the other starts mewing for me to come and get it). So it would have to be a very tight "cage" it lives in and practically be bolted to the floor, elsewise they might try and "push it" off the edge. DH has done the Ant Farm twice (dug up eggs and hopeful queens), so the kids are a bit over that. THANK YOU for the Montessori Lifecycle stuff, I totally forgot about that option. I might do a search for "life cycle" on amazon and see what pops up. Keep the ideas coming, pretty please, my brain is still suffering post-cold and i can't really think of any other options, but don't want to deprive the kids. The flies idea is pretty cool. I'm definitely at least going to try that one though (but I think they will just be normal flies or blowies, no fruit flies to catch around here till I re-build the back paddock into a Permaculture Mandala Paradise ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 I had a look around, thanks for the ideas. They helped inspire the rabbit trail. I was thinking: -Sea Monkeys - A new Ant Farm with the Gel (avoids dealing with moulding food) - Fly Jar - Possibly Worm Farm. So hopefully those should cover it, and they are all pretty simple. Now I just have to figure out where to put them :D I'm going to have to make or find a shelf somewhere where the kids can view them all the time. I was also thinking of just making/getting a "backyard" kit. Something like the standard rectangle insect/aquarium box, some more nets and mini nets (the dogs wrecked our last nets and also our hula hoop :glare: ) Tweezers, a mounting kit and a few other things :) The Bird Feeding etc is fine. We have plenty of birds (3 actual nests in our eaves as well as a few in the surrounding trees) One of the nest actually keeps scaring me each nesting period as when I'm in the kitchen, I keep getting freaked out that baby birds are in the wall, but they are just above the ceilling lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Not really an alternative, but how about growing a mold garden? Also, are there any websites where you can follow the life cycle of something online? I know there are eagle cams, etc. Just thinking maybe there is butterfly or frog cam somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Queen Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Only the queen ant makes babies. No queen, no life cycle. I doubt you can buy a queen. You could try to find one, but... it would be easier not to. Worms hide in dirt and they don't go through metamorphasis. Sea Monkeys! :lol: Has anyone ever been satified with those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Only the queen ant makes babies. No queen, no life cycle. I doubt you can buy a queen. You could try to find one, but... it would be easier not to. Worms hide in dirt and they don't go through metamorphasis. Sea Monkeys! :lol: Has anyone ever been satified with those? DH has dug up the Queens and Eggs before :p What I didn't like was the Ant Farm we used. Shoving food through a hole, then your supposed to remove any left and re-fill it. This hole was small, and then stuff in there got moldy :ack2: Because we couldn't get in out again. It was also up on the shelf above the kitchen, as we had nowhere else to put it. So I think getting one that comes with the gel (source of nturience and everything) would be much easier. Worms was what someone suggested, and thats why I said "possibly" as it doesn't really go through the lifecycle normally. But hey, I had a worm farm in for our recycling studies anyway, so where going to have it at one point or another :D Sea Monkeys - We've actually never ever had them (not even me when I was a kid.) But I think DS would actually be interested in them. Fly in a Jar - The person who asked that. Could they come back and explain more? How do you add the fluff without swamping them? How do you feed them more food without them all getting out? And How did you catch them in the first place? I would LOVE to know more about this, as I said, theres plenty of those here to choose from! LOL. We'll have the nature kit ready to go to, so when it gets to next spring, we can collect up some butterflies from our yellow flower bush (I dunno what it is, I was planning to remove it, but may as well keep it around for a bit longer since it attracts the butterflies) Our Zoo that we are going to has a Butterfly Room too, so that will be fun when we do that (although this time mother is going to wear a hat, as they were fascinate by her hair last time and her, and were trying to land all over her, everyone was looking at me like I had suddenly turned into gold, and I was thinking how to get them off before I left the room, without hurting them LOL) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 If you purchase large crickets from a bait shop (not a pet store) they will lay eggs, the eggs will hatch and you'll see the babies. They need a terrarium with dirt and some organics to eat (lettuce, fruit, etc.) Or at least that's what happened to us when our lizard didn't eat it's dinner fast enough! Sometimes they would lay the eggs right next to the glass so we could see the whole process. The terrarium got moved out after awhile, but ahh, good times. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 We did the lifecycle of a moth (twice) using a caterpillar from the wild (we watched what it ate and kept feeding it that). We kept it in a big mineral water bottle with the top third cut off, replaced and taped, and gauze put over the mouth. Moth was easy to see when he emerged and the top was easy to remove to let him free. The whole experiment cost us almost nothing and we did it at the right time of year for the moth. So I would recommend learning about butterflies during the school year, then raising one as a fun summer project. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 I think any "live" pets are out of the question right now.....although flies, there is certainly plenty of those around, theres about a billion currently stuck to the fly curl papers LOL (we live on a farm, next to a dairy farm so flies are EVERYWHERE). ... What about the life cycle of a cat? Or a cow? There are plenty of books about these and you have the animals right outside your door. Are there chickens, ducks, or other poultry on your farm? If so, study their life-cycles. IMO the kits were designed for children who do not have ready access to the real thing. A farm kid can observe animals in their natural habitats, it is tough for city kids to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3lilreds in NC Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 There are lots of printable options, if you Google. Butterfly life cycle booklet Butterfly Garden book - free to print, real pictures from a butterfly house of all the stages of the life cycle, very beautiful! Butterfly life cycle wheel Frog life cycle printout Frog life cycle wheel I also found simple life cycle puzzles at a teacher supply store. Lakeshore Learning has a Life Cycles Sequencing Kit that I think is really cool. Rainbow Resource has a mini bulletin board set that includes frogs, butterflies, horses, chickens and sunflowers that looks great. They also have "chartlets" for different life cycles; I have the frog and maybe another one, I forget, and we enjoyed those, if you have wall space. I loved doing these with my kids! I'm so excited for Schmooey to start K this fall and we get to do it all again. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Mold garden???? Now I feel so uncool....I had no clue..... :lol: Taking notes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 What about the life cycle of a cat? Or a cow? There are plenty of books about these and you have the animals right outside your door. Are there chickens, ducks, or other poultry on your farm? If so, study their life-cycles. IMO the kits were designed for children who do not have ready access to the real thing. A farm kid can observe animals in their natural habitats, it is tough for city kids to do that. They've watched both the cats and the dogs grow from tiny little things, into massive monsters. Not that they remember it ;) I keep showing them pictures on Lila curled next to her first food bowl. She could probably swallow that thing whole now :D Not much other than cows I'm afraid. We do show off the little cows on our way into town, but its not the same as "seeing" the cycle. Theres plenty of insects around though, even though its colder, because our whole area was recently flooded (luckily the closest it got was around the corner from us, and overflooding part of the irrigation river next to us. We'll definitely be doing lots of "backyard" inspections, hence the nature kits. We'll keep a backpack for each kid with portable supplies in it, and let them roam our house acreage (we have a fenced off house/yard area thats 2 acres, and a heap of native trees, accidental ponds etc. I found a science place locally in my country, and went a bit....well mad. But at least now my enrichment shelf will be full again, and I know they'll have a blast this year :) I also re-read through the supplies list (whilst I was shopping) and it mentioned pill bugs in one of the curriculums too, and I remember when searching around for butterfly kits seeing one of the local places selling pill bugs, so we may get them as well. I think I have gone to having no ideas, to a house that will soon be filled with many little creatures :D Thanks for all your ideas, I'm going to bookmark the thread in case I need to come back to this. And Fly in a Jar lady....I'm going to PM you :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Do you have bait shops? I've made friends with the owner of mine near my house, and he's more than willing to sell (or often give) DD a few insects, worms or what have you to observe. Since Bait shops are required to only carry native species that can be released into the wild, it's not a problem to turn them loose. And they're VERY cheap, especially compared to school suppliers. I don't know how common life-bait fishing is in Australia, but it may be worth checking. Another possibility is to look for a computer or iPad app that follows life cycle for one or more species. My DD has done rat and frog dissections on the iPad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Here are some YouTube videos that might work for you. Frog Eggs turn into tadpole The Life Cycle of a Butterfly Praying Manitis Ife cycle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 (edited) Take a look at the ideas in the Illustrated Guide to Home Biology. It might have some ideas that are more advanced than you want, but some of them are quite doable. One experiment is to take a tube (like a 2L bottle) and take a large sample of pond water and "muck" to watch the life cycle of the stuff in the water. These are called Winogradsky Columns. You should be able to find directions online for them. ETA: I found a nice project outline for the Winogradsky Column from NASA. There are many links to explanations of what is happening. A cool project would be to make 2-3 columns from different places and see what differences you have in the resulting biosphere. Edited April 13, 2012 by Sebastian (a lady) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairy4tmama Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Not as hands on but we have a book called Life Cycles by Michael Ross that covers the life cycle of plants, fungi,and crickets. There is also a Curious George episode about tadpoles that shows and discusses the life cycle of frogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Queen Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Fly in a Jar - The person who asked that. Could they come back and explain more? How do you add the fluff without swamping them? How do you feed them more food without them all getting out? And How did you catch them in the first place? I would LOVE to know more about this, as I said, theres plenty of those here to choose from! LOL. I caught fruit flies in a jar. They are not very fast, so they are easy to catch. If I was catching house flies I would put their food in a jar and when they go in I'd close the jar. The fluff from pillows can sit in the opening of a jar and not fall all the way down to the bottom. I thought the fluff would be a problem, but it wasn't. I don't know how long it takes the flies around you to show their life cycle, but hopefully they do it in a couple days so you won't need to put more food in the jar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 I caught fruit flies in a jar. They are not very fast, so they are easy to catch. If I was catching house flies I would put their food in a jar and when they go in I'd close the jar. The fluff from pillows can sit in the opening of a jar and not fall all the way down to the bottom. I thought the fluff would be a problem, but it wasn't. I don't know how long it takes the flies around you to show their life cycle, but hopefully they do it in a couple days so you won't need to put more food in the jar. THANK YOU :blush: I couldn't find any information about the stuffing, other people just used cling wrap etc instead of a lid, and I thought the stuffing sounded a bit more multi-purpose. I'm getting a nature area set up in the lounge for the kids, so now I just have to find another suitable mini shelf to house all the weird lil critters. And find out more about pillbugs and their times & lifecycles. I seem them ocassionally in the garden, but its always by accident, so I may have to purchase a kit from the live insects place. I love Pillbugs, I wasn't even aware of their name till I saw it in my science list, I always just called them Rolly-pollies :tongue_smilie: When every other insect & bug seems intent on trying to get me, the change with Pillbugs are nice, touch them and weeeee, automatic rolling ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Queen Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 The reason I didn't use a plastic lid on my jar is I wanted the bugs to get air. I got a wad of fluff larger than the opening of the jar, squeezed it, put it in the mouth of the jar and let go. It puffed out and held it's place. I got the idea from a book called 700 Science Experiments for Everyone. If you trap large house flies I bet you could use window screen or mosquito netting to keep them in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 If you're on a farm & have the space why not do chickens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 If you're on a farm & have the space why not do chickens? 'Cause um.......thats what my dogs eat for dinner? :tongue_smilie: Its hard to explain our fences (theres multiple gateways entries fenced off parcels etc). We're currently amidst getting towards winter (not good time for chickens) and I don't really have the time for setting up chickens right now. And yeah....we are still working on fencing the area where the dogs go. Roxy gets out all the time to the other fenced areas, she's Houdini in fur. Right now our goal is to find the new spot or two every weekend, and fix it. So eventually we'll have plugged up every area she gets out (weekend before last was the entire side fencing and I swear, it was like watching the dog olympics when I spied her coming back through that way (it previously just had dog fencing there). She jumped and spun mid-air straight through the square, like a rotisserie chicken spinning, and landed in a sit on our side of the fence :001_huh: I don't think I was capable of speech for several minutes. Now shes found a gap where either the grounds sinking or the meshed fence is rising, so we'll be plugging that up this weekend. Once we get her contained (shes larger the Lila, but lila never tries to escape lol) then we'll be creating a garden that includes chickens in the back paddock. But before then, no way, too much chance of becoming Lilas dinner (she has a weakness for feathers, eggs & chicken necks which can only lead to peril!) :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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