Well, it has finally been decided that my experiment with the Praying Mantis egg sac has failed. We didn’t get any Praying Mantids running around and I think the kids were a little disappointed. I mean, this has been an ongoing project for over 6 months.

Still, even with the failure of the experiment, there are many new things where I can go from here. The egg sac can be handled, pictures can be drawn of it and rubbings can be taken from it. We can discuss reasons why it failed and what are some things that we could have done to prevent the failure.

This is an excellent opportunity for any parent. If an experiment, project or a recipe fails, don’t feel that the learning experience ends. Simply shift it and allow the learning to take a new direction. Sure you aren’t left with the expected result but you may find something even more amazing than you originally imagined.

Not only that, but you also show your children to not give up, even if something doesn’t go right. You teach them that things happen and there is no reason to get overly upset if it doesn’t work but to think “outside the box” and figure out new ways to make it work.

In my case, there really is no way to make it right and after a few more weeks, we are going to be dissecting the egg sac to see what went on inside. Maybe we won’t find anything but we just might. I’ve decided to give it a few weeks, just in case I didn’t give it enough time, I would feel really guilty if I destroyed the egg sac when there was still life to it.

Next time, if there is one, I think I will put the egg sac outside in the garden and let mother nature take care of it. So, it is pretty obvious that we won’t be seeing this (a video of Praying Mantids hatching, actually this is an excellent video and covers the life cycle of a Praying Mantid) but we have a whole new angle of learning to explore.

Sirena Van Schaik

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I think everyone has those thoughts, well, except children. To them the world around them is filled with wonders. Adventures that we have forgotten in the daily press of adulthood. I remember being so content each summer as I scoured the woods for adventures or pulled fresh water clams out of a cold clear stream. I hated travelling and preferred to stay tucked into my own yard (mind you my yard was a town), and explore to my heart’s delight.

Now you are probably wondering why I am rambling about my childhood and forgotten adventures and it is simply that I have been reminded of the many wonders in my own backyard and all the opportunities for learning that takes place almost under my nose.

Spring is here after all and the world is full of new sounds, new sights and new life. It is a great time to start a growing project with your children or to start mapping out the backyard and all the animals that are making a home in it.

For my own yard, I have a Kildear pair that have laid four speckled eggs (right on the ground) for all to see. It is an amazing experience and it has opened up the door to learn about how other animals protect themselves and their young. (If you aren’t aware of it, Kildears are birds that will pretend to be injured to lure predators away from their nest.)

I also have a red fox that raids the compost and a raccoon that does as well. They offer opportunities to look at tracks in the mud, and discuss animals and how to take care around them. I also have a Turkey Vulture that loves to sit on a post across the road and watch me. I probably look tasty but I have taken some amazing pictures of him and answered a thousand questions about him and the Hawk that is nesting in a tall spruce in our yard.

There is an eco-system just waiting to be explored and I don’t have to travel to the Caribbean (although that would be nice too) to experience wonders and adventure.

So today was just a reminder to take a few minutes and explore your backyard with your child. You will be pleasantly surprised, as I was, at how much life is teeming in your back yard.

Mini Project

Since I am sending you out in your backyard, why not take the time to have a mini project.

What you will need:

• Twine
• 4 sticks
• graph paper
• brushes
• shovels
• magnifying glass
• containers

What you should do:

1. Section of a square in your back yard with the sticks and twine.
2. Allow your child to explore the space and show her how to mark the item on the graph paper.
3. Explore with all the different materials and save some things that can be saved, such as seeds, stems from plants, soil.
4. Label the containers and the graph to remember where you took the samples from and when
5. Spend the next week or so going back to the spot and checking to see if things have changed or if they are the same.
6. Also take the time to exam the items you took from your backyard. This is great for rainy day activities.
7. If you happen to find something really interesting, start a mini project on the topic, i.e. snails (which I will go into the proper care of snails at a later date.)

Sirena Van Schaik

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Although the whole landing and Mars stuff was a huge hit in my home, what was even bigger was a new World Wide Telescope that launched this weekend. I stumbled across it at 4:30am on Sunday morning, unable to sleep so I decided to work…ugh.

This is a great program that you download onto your computer. It has features where you can explore different planets and different parts of our night sky. It covers planets, solar systems, galaxies, stars, black holes, and many many more topics. When you click on a section of the map, say Mercury, you can pull up the basic information about the planet; size, ect., ect. You can also hit a button for more information and it will take you to websites with more in depth information about the topic and will also upload telescopic images of the object that you are studying.

The big draw for me, more than the self discovery, although I love that too, are the guided tours. In these, a scientist is talking about a certain topic, i.e. black holes. On the screen, they show you where you can find the black hole with a proper telescope, i.e. beside the constellation sagitarius and they talk about the research and information that they have gathered from it. It is very informative and they are short enough to keep the attention of young children.

Parents can also connect to an online telescope but the downside of this is that after a few hours of trying, I gave up. I couldn’t get the programs and drivers to work so I am not sure what I need to get the telescope to work or what it is like when it is working. I couldn’t find any helpful information on the site for loading but it may have been the hour and my state of mind by that point.

So if you are looking for ways to learn about the solar system, I would strongly recommend this site. It is an amazing program and can really help older children with their science projects.

Sirena Van Schaik

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This is an excellent activity to teach children about cause and effect and also about predicting outcomes.  Before you do the actual activity, ask questions like, “What do you think will happen when we mix baking soda and vinegar?”  You can also mix it up and have different types of powder and liquid and ask for predictions for each.  Use flour and water, vinegar and flour, water and baking soda. 

After that it is just a matter of testing the theories (cause and effect).  All you need is the ingredients you listed in your questions and a cookie sheet for the overspill.

What you will need:

• a cup or water bottle
• vinegar (usually about a cup is enough for the experiment)
• baking soda (usually about one heaping tablespoon but you can add more or less depending on the size of the container)
• food coloring (optional)

What to do:

1. Pour the vinegar into the container.
2. Let your child add the baking soda and watch it bubble up.
3. Talk about what you just saw.

And that is it.  You can have your older child record your results so they start laying the foundation of documenting their research but it isn’t necessary.  

*Alternate: place the baking soda into an empty balloon and fasten the balloon to the top of the water bottle already filled with vinegar.  Be careful when you do this so the baking soda does not fall into the vinegar.  Have your child tip the balloon up so the baking soda falls into the vinegar while you hold the mouth of the balloon to keep it from slipping off the bottle.  The balloon will fill with gas and inflate.*

I hope you enjoy this activity as much as I do.  I will post directions to making your own volcano and a volcano cheat sheet in the next few weeks but until then have fun.  Oh, if your child wants to know what the chemical reaction is, all you need to know is that vinegar and baking soda combined makes the gas, Carbon Dioxide.

Sirena Van Schaik 

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I actually wasn’t that keen about her but I went online and found as many print outs as I could on the anatomy of the Praying Mantis and pulled out all the books that I have on insects so that my children and I could do a mini project on the topic.  Mini projects are something that I have always done with my children and it has really opened up a world of possibilities for them.  They enjoy the projects and they love researching new topics.  So far my 6 year old has done projects on several types of insects, dinosaurs, space, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Egypt, and Volcanoes to name only a few.  My youngest son, who is 3, has embarked on a different type of learning and our main focus, besides the insect projects, is the world of space, or more specifically, The Milky Way.

Taking the time to do these little projects, or massive projects as the case has proved many times, helps build a love of learning and an interest in Science since many of our topics revolve around science topics.  The Praying Mantis was just another way to learn and I was happy to share my home with her for a few weeks.

She was overjoyed with the accommodations as well and ate up all the crickets that we threw in for her (we have a bearded dragon so there was no shortage in food for the Praying Mantis, or Manni as we called her).  As the days progressed, our dear Manni started looking slightly fatter.  I wondered if we had been feeding her too much and she was either so full or so accustomed to us that she would sit in our hands, without moving or biting, and just relax.  The kids learned a lot from her and one of them was the fact that Manni wasn’t a boy and would in fact be a mother in a few short months. 

I found in her little terrarium one morning, a very disgusting pod.  At first I wasn’t sure what it was, especially since Manni sat alive and well in the corner of the but after a little research, I realized that what I was looking at was the ootheca, or egg case.  My kids were overjoyed and after a few debates, it was agreed that we would keep the ootheca for the winter and hopefully hatch out a few hundred Praying Mantis nymphs in the spring (they’ll be released when they hatch by the way). 

Once I was in charge of hatching, I had to do a bit more research, a word of warning about mini projects: parents are always the one to do the most work.  In February, I placed the ootheca outside so the eggs have a winter, from the research I gathered, this is an important stage in the development of the nymphs.  They are finally back in the house as of this week and hopefully, I have done everything right so that Manni’s baby’s will arrive. 

Learning about the life-cycle of an insect species is a wonderful opportunity for all children and I would strongly recommend doing something similar with your children.  There are many places out there where you can purchase butterfly hatching kits.  Your children, with adult supervision of course, can grow the plants necessary for your caterpillars to grow, hatch the eggs, watch the caterpillars and finally see the metamorphosis to butterfly.  It is a wonderful experience and the learning is endless.  Make sure that if you choose to raise butterflies to only choose a species that is native to your area. 

Of course, I’m not going to have beautiful butterflies to release in a few weeks and I won’t get the chance to see a fuzzy caterpillar eat up the plants I have lovingly tended.  I also won’t get to see the chrysalis hanging off the branches of my plants but my children will have the chance to see how Praying Mantis nymphs are hatched.  They also get a small lesson on how to cultivate fruit flies for feeding the two praying mantis that I told them we could keep for a few days.  So there will be learning involved, just not the pretty kind. 

So over the next few weeks, I hope to share one of my project experiences with you but for today, I will leave you with a few pictures of our ootheca.  According to the research I have done, there are probably several hundred nymphs in there.

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