Avoid Using Disposable Cups: Personalized mugs

Posted May 17, 11 -Filed Under Eco-friendly living ideas, children's activities (recycled materials) | Leave a Comment

Having a party but don’t want to use disposable cups? At Kid parties at our house, we sometimes let guests write directly on the mug or cup with a Sharpie. Because they can identify their cup throughout the party, this eliminates the need to dirty another cup. Believe it or not, the ink scrubs off without much effort: use a scouring pad.

Fabulous Chocolate Stuffed Strawberries

Posted May 8, 11 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials), recipes | Leave a Comment

One of my Mother’s day treats was a combination that I love: chocolate and fresh strawberries. My older daughter invented these chocolate filled strawberries. We all agreed that they were just as good as chocolate dipped strawberries but were easier to make. We also liked the fact that the lard was left out of the chocolate dipping sauce. Presumably the lard helps the chocolate form a firm layer on the outside of the strawberries. Why bother with all that when you could just stuff the center. Clever girl!

Works best with large strawberries.

These are the chocolate filled strawberries that my daughter made for me- minus all the ones we already eat.

Absolutely delicious!

Don’t forget the fresh whipped cream.

Frog Hunting In Maryland: The Northern Cricket Frog

Posted Mar 22, 11 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials), seasonal: spring, seasonal: summer | Leave a Comment

It is spring and time to look for frogs. Yesterday, my daughter and I went for a nature walk in the woods around our house. During our adventure, we found this frog. It is a cricket frog, Acris crepitans. Cricket frogs are non-climbing tree frog. I’ll be sure to look for their eggs during their breeding season (May through July).

This cricket frog is on a child’s hand.

Identification:

They vary in color but often have a dark triangle present between the eyes and a Y-shaped stripe on their backs.

Fun With Cattail Spikes

Posted Mar 4, 11 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials), seasonal: spring, seasonal: winter | Leave a Comment

When exploring a wetland with my daughter, we came upon some cattail plants (Typha sp.) When I saw them, I remembered how fun they can be. We had a pleasant time together discovering or re-discovering the amazing qualities of cattail spikes.

You have got to try this! Find a cattail flower spike in winter or early spring when last year’s flowers produced a sausage-like thing that is magic: or something close to it. Try pulling a handful off and hold it tight, then watch when you open your hand. It will explode into a soft landscape full of tiny seeds. Each seed has a bit of fluff attached; the purpose is to allow wind to carry the seed off to new locations.

All I ask is that you don’t play with all the spikes. Leave most of them alone. Did you know that some birds use the fluff to line their nests?

Silly Clown Dress-Up Game And Vintage Suitcase Reuse

Posted Jan 31, 11 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials), party: Circus, reuse cloths, reuse suitcase | Leave a Comment

Make your own silly suitcase dress up game- Clownin Around. You should look for an old suitcase to hold the clothing for this game. You also need to find stuff to fill the suitcase. : oversized pants, skirts, hats, shoes, necklaces, shirts, dresses, scarves. Gather unwanted clothing from around the house, ask friends for castoffs, and/ or go to the thrift store or hunt yard sales. Seek out funny cloths like Hawaiian shirts, and “clown” shoes (oversized possibly mismatched).

This clown dress up game is really fun to play at a clown or circus themed party (or any party really).

To play the game: Two contestants at a time compete to put on as much cloths from the suitcase as possible. They must stop when the allotted amount of time has passed. We use the sand timers from other games for this purpose. The one we use most often is a three minute timer. One at a time, the now clowned-up contestant pulls off the cloths and accessories one by one while the others count them. Then the next “clown” takes off his or her extra cloths while others count. Someone will need to keep track of the numbers. Then two new contestants give it a try until everyone has had a turn. The winner is the person who was able to put on the most cloths and accessories in the allotted time. The Clown-tastic winner is…

This game isn’t really so much about winning because the fun is in the playing (and the watching). Have a camera ready!!

These pictures were taken at my daughter’s circus themed party. More about the picture frame here: http://www.funinthemaking.net/2010/05/17/use-an-old-fame-to-frame-a-picture-before-it-is-even-taken/

Rules:

Make up your own rules and agree to them before starting.

For example: A contestant must have his or her legs in one or both pant leg hole. Shirts must be “worn” by covering your torso or otherwise have both arms in one or both armholes. Scarves must be tied on (anywhere). Hats must be able to stay on when the game stops (head, elbow, whatever).

Or -Have no rules and see what happens!

Observing Nature: Black Vultures Haunt Local Library

Posted Jan 3, 11 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials) | 3 Comments

Black Vultures Coragyps atratus in Maryland December 2010.

If you live in Southern Maryland, you should definitely check out the wake behind the St. Mary’s County Public Library in Lexington Park. A wake is the name of a group of vultures. They are also collectively called a committee. You will find an impressive number of Black Vultures there. Don’t be spooked by their large size, black bodies or their eating habits: they feed mostly on the carcasses of dead animals. They won’t be that interested in you. Therefore, getting relatively close shouldn’t be a problem if you approach slowly. Bring a camera.

I love the way they walk: what funny characters they are. You have to admit that they are interesting at the very least.

More about vultures:

According to Wikipedia: Vulture stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive, allowing them to safely digest putrid carcasses infected with Botulinum toxin, hog cholera, and anthrax bacteria that would be lethal to other scavengers.[5] This also enables them to use their reeking, corrosive vomit as a defensive projectile when threatened. Vultures urinate straight down their legs; the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling.

O.K. that was gross and cool at the same time. Vultures are amazing. They are needed too. Scavengers like vultures along with decomposers keep the earth clean of stinking dead things and break them down into components used to make new living things.

Bird Feeder Bird Watching: A Great Place To Start

Posted Dec 12, 10 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials), seasonal: fall, seasonal: winter | Leave a Comment

Introduce your kids to bird watching by setting up a birdfeeder within easy view of a window. Children will have an easier time learning to use binoculars by starting with a fixed focus point. Children will focus on the birdfeeder (with the help of an adult if needed) and wait for the birds to come. They will see the birds like never before. Using a bird feeder will bring around many varieties of birds for their enjoyment.

Try buying different seeds to attract different varieties of birds. Provide a notebook where kids can record birds that they see. Show them how they can start their own life list. Buy a bird field guide or research sightings on-line.

Chipping Sparrows

Local Halloween Themed Sewing/ Crafting Workshop

Posted Oct 13, 10 -Filed Under children's activities (recycled materials), workshops and classes | Leave a Comment

Sign Up Now For A Halloween Themed Sewing/ Crafting Workshop

Design and Sew Your Own Monster Softie!

This class involves some machine sewing and some hand sewing but not an overwhelming amount of either.

Bring: fuzzy sweaters and other items to be repurposed. Your charming softie might have claws, fangs or even a barbed tail. Not to worry, monster softies are always nice to their makers.

Design and Craft Your Own Rogue Robot.

This project doesn’t require any sewing; just imagination. Make them as scary as you like.

Bring: bits and pieces; a broken phone, worn out windshield wipers, broken flashlight, an old computer keyboard…. Also, be sure to raid the recycle bin for inspiring parts. Have extra? Bring some to share. In addition, an assortment of “junk” will be provided.

Workshop (9am-2pm) or class (9am-11am or 12pm-2pm)

Possible dates: Oct. 16th, Oct. 17th, and Oct. 24th

For more info.

Raise your own caterpillars For The Fun Of It: Fritillary Butterflies

Posted Aug 26, 10 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials) | Leave a Comment

Try this at home! Find and raise your own caterpillars. I found these lovely Variegated Fritillary caterpillars in my yard (southern MD) and didn’t know what kind they were. The best part of raising caterpillars is the thrill of discovery!

I found these caterpillars on our violet plants.

Here it is munching down on a violet leaf.

Find your own:

If you want to find fritillary caterpillars, you will want to look on the plants which they love to eat. In this case: violets, pansies, passion flowers, flax, stonecrop, moonseed, and plantain. I found these on violet plants.

Make a home:

metamorphosis observatory

See my post on making a metamorphosis observatory.

Feed:

Bring in some of the plant you found your caterpillar on. Give it new food as it eats up the old. The vase should have water in it to keep the plant yummy for the caterpillar but you don’t want the caterpillar to drown in the water, so use a vase with a narrow neck.

I allow plenty of violets to grow around my house. The larvae (the caterpillars) of the variegated fritillary as well as other fritillaries feed on violet plants.

You might not even think about it but when you landscape your yard and get rid of all the native plants, you are also getting rid of food for native insects. If there are no bugs (including caterpillars), then birds etc. don’t have anything to eat. Native insects need native plants!

This is the chrysalis of the variegated fritillary. It has beautiful gold spots.

Here is a variegated Fritillary butterfly that we raised.

Raising Tree Frog Tadpoles (MD, USA)

Posted Aug 17, 10 -Filed Under Nature: plant and animal identification, children's activities (recycled materials), seasonal: spring, seasonal: summer, use for vegetable scraps | 28 Comments

If you have kids, raising tadpoles into frogs is a must. With not much effort you can witness the fascinating metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog. Here is a tree frog we raised in the summer of 2004.

Gray tree frog found on my house (which is green) in southern Maryland 2008.

Green tree frog found outside my house. (Southern Maryland 2008)

Green tree frog outside my kitchen window 2009. It is not uncommon for tree frogs to hang out there eating the moths that are attracted to the light.

Mini Pond -2004

We have a galvanized container that I got at an antique store that doubles as a mini deck pond. When it rains we often hear one or more male tree frogs calling for a mate. They usually get together at night but we’ve seen them on really rainy days. In the morning we see eggs in our pond: lots of them. It doesn’t take long before you have all those little tadpoles swimming around. At this point, we get a few of the tadpoles to raise inside. I find that if the weather is really hot, the tadpoles all die. Hence, for better results, we bring some inside for raising. The tadpoles in our mini deck pond, if conditions are good, will eat mosquito larvae growing in the “pond”. Therefore, I don’t have to worry about creating a mosquito problem. The tadpoles will also eat algae- the green stuff growing on the sides of your pond. Your pond will stay cleaner looking. They will also resort to eating smaller tadpoles. This sounds pretty harsh but in doing so, at least some of the tadpoles will make it to adulthood.

Home for tadpoles

We kept our tadpoles in various large glass containers over the years. I like to limit the number of tadpoles because you don’t want to overcrowd them. The number you raise will depend on the size of the jar or tank you use

Change the water:

Freshen the water by dumping about half out and replacing it with fresh water. I have well water but if you have city water, you probably have chlorine to worry about. The chlorine will kill your tadpoles so set out a pitcher of water for a day or two in preparation to adding it to your jar of tadpoles.

Feed your tadpoles:

Your jar pond should have sunlight so the algae can grow. They love to eat the algae that grow naturally but there will not be enough in your little “pond” so you will need to feed them.

Don’t add so much food that the water gets all dirty looking. Feed as needed. I’ve successfully raised tadpoles on lettuce. I chopped it up then boiled it for a short time. (I’ve since read that boiling it first isn’t necessary.) After that I’d either pour off the water and freeze it or make portions in ice cube trays: the lettuce is frozen in the ice. Either break off bits of your frozen lettuce or drop in an ice cube when necessary. I’ve also feed them leftover fish food that I didn’t need any more. They loved that too.

I recently found the following link. It provides additional information about keeping tadpoles and is definitely worth checking out (no pictures though).

http://frogs.org.au/x/media/cs-lentic.pdf

When they start to grow front legs, you will need to cover your jar with cheese cloth or mesh of some kind so they don’t escape into your house. There needs to be something for the frog to climb onto- out of the water because you don’t want your new frog to drown. Release your tree frog back into the wild after metamorphosis takes place.

The whole process will take a little over two months if you are starting with eggs.

Check out the mouth on this guy!

This tadpole is clearly trying to go unnoticed.

Back legs at last!

Almost done!

How cute is that!

Tree frog we raised in the summer of 2008.

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    Are you having any trouble understanding some of the instructions? Feel free to send me a quick e-mail at HesterJane@FunInTheMaking.net. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Do you have any suggestions regarding a specific post? Maybe you have a better way and would like to share it with the other creative people visiting this site? -Hester Jane