Our Adventure Raising Caterpillars   My girls and I spent an afternoon exploring the trails that run along one of our local creeks a couple weeks ago. We saw all sorts of wildlife that day including several pairs of mallard ducks, a crayfish, and loads of pipevine swallowtail caterpillars. After spending the majority of our afternoon completely enthralled watching the caterpillars devouring leaves, we decided to bring one home to continue observing.  Normally I don't allow my kids to keep live insects for more than a few hours to observe because they belong in the wild and typically don't last long in captivity, but a friend of mine had success recently raising this exact species from eggs she ordered online, so I figured we could pull it off. We ended up choosing two, one that was older and looked close to adulthood, and a smaller younger looking one. Pipevine swallowtail caterpillars eat pipevine leaves so we collected a large ziploc bag full of fresh young pipevine leaves t...

Owls, in my opinion are one of the coolest groups of birds out there. Their unique appearance and their amazing hunting capabilities make them an especially interesting group of birds. Out of all the types of birds we studied this year, owls were my daughter's favorite. All About Owls: There are over 200 species of owls and they are found on every continent except Antarctica. They live in a wide variety of habitats including deserts, prairies, forests, and even the arctic tundra. Owls are one of only a few types of birds that are nocturnal, meaning they are primarily active at night. They have several adaptations that make them especially stealthy night hunters. Owls have large eyes and an excellent sense of hearing for honing in on prey. They also have long wings with soft fringed feathers called flutes. Flutes reduce the sound of the air flowing over the owls wings, allowing them to fly almost silently. Owls eat insects and other invertebrates, amphibians, fish, and small...

We had a 25 pound bag of flour rip open and spill all over our pantry earlier this week. Luckily the majority of it stayed inside the bag and I was able to repackage it. Instead of wasting the several cups that did spill out, we decided to attempt making some salt dough ornaments, and I love how they turned out! Salt Dough Recipe: Salt dough is simple to make and only requires a couple ingredients. You will need: -2 cups of flour -1 cup of salt -1 cup of water Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Then slowly add the water and stir until a soft dough forms. You can add a little more flower if it's too sticky. It should feel similar to playdough. Nature Print Ornaments:  Grab a cutting board, a rolling pin, and a little extra flour and roll out your dough just like you would cookie dough. You want your dough to be about a 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out round ornaments using a cookie cutter or a plastic cup. Now it's time to decorate! We used various na...

Hummingbirds are one of my favorite types of birds. I love watching them hover over the feeder on our porch. They are fascinating little creatures, so of course we had to include them in our bird study! Information About Hummingbirds There are over 300 species of hummingbirds and they are only found in the Americas. The world's smallest bird species is the bee hummingbird, measuring in at just 2 inches tall. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can hover and fly backwards, some can even fly upside down! A hummingbird flaps it's wings around 80 times per second. That is crazy fast! In order for hummingbirds to fuel their incredibly fast metabolisms, they need to take in a lot of high energy foods, like flower nectar and small insects and spiders. A hummingbird typically eats nearly half it's weight in a day, and may stop to eat as often as every 10 minutes. Hummingbirds build tiny elastic nests mainly from twigs, grasses, and spider silk. Female hummingbirds...

Since there is a shortage on eggs many places right now, including here, I set out to find a few alternative Easter egg activity ideas, in case I can't get my hands on any real eggs this week. Here are a few of my favorite ideas that I came across: Easter Egg Rocks Collect some oval egg shaped rocks from your yard or neighborhood. Clean them up and let them dry. Then paint them like fancy easter eggs with acrylic paints. These could be used as an alternative for real eggs in an egg hunt. Decorate Easter Egg Sugar Cookies Make a batch of roll out cookie dough and cut out oval shaped cookies to bake. After they're cool, decorate them with icing and sprinkles. (Click the link for a good recipe and decorating tips) Painting Plastic Eggs If you can't find real eggs, grab a pack of plastic Easter eggs, and paint them with acrylic paints or decorate them with colored permanent markers. Then you can stuff them with goodies and hide them for an egg hunt. Yarn Eggs Y...

STEM Activities  - Make a Marble Maze: Grab some plastic straws, some cardboard, glue, and a marble and challenge your kids to design and make their own marble maze.  - Make and Test Aluminum Foil Boats  : Challenge your kids to make boats out of aluminum foil. Then test how much weight they can hold by filling them with pennies in the bathtub or a kiddie pool. -  Make a Marshmallow Catapult :  Challenge your kids to design a catapult for throwing marshmallows.  - The Paper Chain Challenge  : Challenge your kids to make the longest paper chain they can with a single piece of paper. -Lego Tower Challenge: Challenge your kids to build the tallest tower they can with a predetermined amount of Lego blocks. - The Egg Drop Challenge:   Challenge your kids to design and build a contraption that will keep an egg from breaking if dropped from a predetermined height. - Build and Test Bridges: Challenge your kids to build a brid...