Zoo day in the back yard

I'm not a single parent, as I don't have custody of my son, age 9. But I am
divorced and see him quite a lot.

One day in the summer we had Zoo Day in the backyard. What I showed him were
mostly insects. I told him what they were, what they ate, how they lived,
etc. We had plentiful grasshoppers, at least 5 kinds of wasps, Japanese
beetles, various spiders, black ants on the sunflowers, various plant hoppers
that the ants "herded", antlions which formed funnels in sand.

Then we had fun feeding black ants to the funnel spiders and antlions. He
loved it!

It was free, it was educational and we both had fun.

We also have a park we ride our bikes to. The park has a creek which is only
3' wide. This creek has a surprising number of critters living in it. As the
creek exits a cement thing, it widens and becomes a slower moving pool. This
pool contains minnows (stickleback and blacknose dace I later found out),
crayfish (we caught 25 one day), dragonfly nymphs, water beetles (several
kinds), 2-3 tadpoles, a frog (which we can never manage to catch), and water
scorpions. Water scorpions look like the walking stick insect but they live
underwater. They can bite too.

Plus one day we found a scud (related to shrimp)! So we have lots of fun
catching and releasing minnows and crayfish. We have even kept 2 crayfish as
pets and watched them shed their exoskeletons and grow from 3/4" to 6" long
now.

My son has learned a lot about these critters too. So much that he gave a
presentation about them to his webelo group.

If you have a park nearby they provide a few things to do which are free and
interesting, especially if you like plants and animals. Entertainment doesn't
always have to be expensive.

--
Sig: Say no to fixed width HTML tables. They look terrible in most browsers.

Thanks A-Man. Great story. The amount of time with your son is less
important than what you do with the time. Many kids aren't so lucky.
Some of my favorite times with my kids are being together outdoors. It's
more fun to learn about nature by seeing and touching than it is to only
read about it.
My first birds and bees speech was due to my daughter asking " what are
those salamanders doing daddy?"

Take care.




"A Man" wrote in message
reenews.net...
I'm not a single parent, as I don't have custody of my son, age 9. But I
am
divorced and see him quite a lot.

One day in the summer we had Zoo Day in the backyard. What I showed him
were
mostly insects. I told him what they were, what they ate, how they lived,
etc. We had plentiful grasshoppers, at least 5 kinds of wasps, Japanese
beetles, various spiders, black ants on the sunflowers, various plant
hoppers
that the ants "herded", antlions which formed funnels in sand.

Then we had fun feeding black ants to the funnel spiders and antlions. He
loved it!

It was free, it was educational and we both had fun.

We also have a park we ride our bikes to. The park has a creek which is
only
3' wide. This creek has a surprising number of critters living in it. As
the
creek exits a cement thing, it widens and becomes a slower moving pool.
This
pool contains minnows (stickleback and blacknose dace I later found out),
crayfish (we caught 25 one day), dragonfly nymphs, water beetles (several
kinds), 2-3 tadpoles, a frog (which we can never manage to catch), and
water
scorpions. Water scorpions look like the walking stick insect but they
live
underwater. They can bite too.

Plus one day we found a scud (related to shrimp)! So we have lots of fun
catching and releasing minnows and crayfish. We have even kept 2 crayfish
as
pets and watched them shed their exoskeletons and grow from 3/4" to 6"
long
now.

My son has learned a lot about these critters too. So much that he gave a
presentation about them to his webelo group.

If you have a park nearby they provide a few things to do which are free
and
interesting, especially if you like plants and animals. Entertainment
doesn't
always have to be expensive.

--
Sig: Say no to fixed width HTML tables. They look terrible in most
browsers.