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By Mom Unplugged, July 15, 2007 8:58 am

I am sure you have all been dying to know how our Sea Monkeys are doing. Well, they are just fine thank you! At left is a bad picture of their tank. The little beige things swimming around are the Sea Monkeys who are now about 1/4″ long from head to tail. They are just a little over one month-old! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUYS!!!

I am supposed to be packing for our big trip tomorrow but I hate packing and have found the ultimate form of procrastination: attempting to photograph a 1/4″ long, rapidly swimming Sea Monkey using only a mediocre digital camera.

After about 25 attempts, I finally got it just right and snapped a Sea Monkey portrait to be proud of!

Here it is:

Isn’t he cute? His name is Squiggles 7, or maybe Squiggles 23, I am not sure since they all have a very strong family resemblance.

To read about the process of hatching Sea Monkeys, see my June 18th, Perfect Pet post, or click on the label “sea monkeys” in the right sidebar.

Now, back to my packing. Big sigh. I will be away for about three weeks and will have computer access, although my posts might be a bit less frequent.

I advise everyone to stay off Southwest Airlines on Monday, as you risk meeting my screeching 18 month-old in person. I plan on passing out ear plugs.

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By Mom Unplugged, July 5, 2007 11:10 am

A really neat project to get kids involved with nature (and help wildlife) is to certify your yard as a Wildlife Habitat. The National Wildlife Federation has a certification program that is fun to do with kids. So far there are over 70,000 certified backyard habitats.

You do not need a big, fancy yard to get certified. What you do need however, are four basic habitat elements: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. Click on the links to each element for examples, as well as projects for incorporating these elements into your yard.

Sit down with your kids and evaluate your yard. Decide together what you can do to make sure that the four elements are present. Create a plan and carry it out. When you are done, complete the online certification questionnaire.

If you are still lacking in any area, the website will tell you what you need to improve. If you have the basic elements, then you will get a certification number. You will also get a one-year membership to the National Wildlife Federation which includes a subscription to National Wildlife magazine. They will send you a certificate and a press-release for your local paper to help spread the word about this program. Plus, you can order ($25) a cool, weather-proof sign like mine in the photo to really let the world know about the importance of gardening for wildlife.

Here are some examples of each element from our yard:

Bird feeders are an obvious choice for FOOD. Include many different varieties of seeds (sunflower is the favorite here, but we also have millet, thistle, and cracked corn), suets, and a hummingbird feeder of sugar water. We put peanuts out for the squirrels and chipmunks too (although quite a few birds enjoy the peanuts as well). Also, diversify your feeder types. Some birds like perches, some prefer to cling, some like platform feeders like the one on the left. We also have a birdseed block on the ground for ground feeders.

Other, less obvious FOOD sources are native plants, bushes with berries, and flowers that produce dried seed heads such as these Purple Coneflowers:

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a pond or other natural water source on your property, birdbaths are essential for providing WATER. This is one of our three bird baths. One of them is heated so water is available in the winter also. Even the squirrels drink out of them! This photo also shows a FOOD source: the Cosmos flowers around the birdbath produce nice seeds.

This birdbath is near a tree so drinking birds have an easy escape if necessary. Our birdseed block is in the foreground.

Examples of COVER in our yard:

PLACES TO RAISE YOUNG can be man made such as nest boxes or bird houses, or natural: trees, shrubs, dead trees. Even a woodpile, like our messy one above, provides great nesting opportunities for chipmunks and other small rodents.

We are fortunate enough to have this lightning damaged, partially dead tree (a “snag“) behind the house which, as you can see from the photo below, has become a bird condo! In fact there is a very noisy family of Lewis’ Woodpeckers currently nesting in one of those holes.

We hung some roosting pockets under the eaves (near a window so we could watch the action), but there have been no interested birds so far.

Here are some book suggestions to help you too. The Backyard Naturalistis a wonderful book and has helped me a lot, but you will only find it used.

This one is a great guide to native plant species in my region. Obviously, if you don’t have a high elevation western garden it won’t do for you. But check your library, bookstore, or Amazon for similar regional guides to get native plant ideas.

I don’t have this one, but I think I will order it. It looks like a really good one too, with lots of ideas for projects.

The National Wildlife Federation also has an online gardening bookstore that you might want to look at as well.

This post is part of The Sunday Garden Tour at A Wrung Sponge. Head over there to find more participants, or to add your own garden-related post. Happy Sunday!

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By Mom Unplugged, June 18, 2007 8:09 am

On International Sea Monkey Day (May 16th - mark your calender for next year) I revealed my secret fascination with the sea monkey concept. So, during one of my as-infrequent-as-possible trips to Walmart, how could I pass up the $6.00 Sea Monkey kit that I happened to see!

Despite my warnings that the “Sea Monkeys” (aka. brine shrimp) would definitely not be as cute and cuddly as the picture on the package, my kids were thrilled with this experiment.

It was really quite simple. First we had to fill the tank with tap water. Then we put in the powdery contents of packet Number 1, a water purifier, and let it sit 24 hours.

The next evening was the fun time. After insuring that the water was the recommended temperature, my daughter poured in Packet #2, the eggs! My son stirred, and voila!

The results? Well, not much that we could see. Perhaps our water was a little colder than recommended (means a longer hatching period).

By the next morning however, three almost microscopic little squiggles were visible (sort of). The children christened them Squiggles, Squirmy, and Wiggles. By that evening we had such a colony that naming them was impossible (how about Squiggles 1, Squiggles 2, Squiggles 3… Squiggles 142, etc.). Such excitement! You’d think we were hatching chickens or elephants or something.

On day 5 we gave them a bit of food from Packet #3. They seem pretty happy. I guess I don’t see why brine shrimp can’t be happy.

We have had them a week now and I must say they are growing rapidly. You can now make them out easily, and if you look closely, you can even see their little waving legs (arms? fins? cilia?). Still too small for a photo though, so I will post this dramatic closeup from Wikipedia:

Try this project with your kids. I would say that we have definitely had our $6.00 worth of fun already!

Plus, maybe they are not so cute, maybe they are not so cuddly but - they don’t yack up furballs on your new sisal rug, need a walk in the middle of the night or shed fur all over your favorite little black dress.

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By Mom Unplugged, June 7, 2007 6:55 pm

My 6 year-old daughter is obsessed with rocks. I find rocks in her pockets, in her little purses, in jars on her desk, in her nightstand drawer, and once, even in her bed! She even likes to look at and read books about rocks. I list her favorites below.

We got started on geodes when one of her school book fair books came with a small, uncracked geode. She brought it to school on her “Sharing Day” and cracked it in front of her class, a performance which was, apparently, a big hit with her classmates.

In case you have never encountered one, a geode is a very unimpressive looking rock on the outside, as you can see here:

Geodes form in porous rocks such as limestone or lava. If a hollow cavity exists in the rock, water containing dissolved minerals can seep in through the rock’s pores and crystallize on the inside walls of the cavity. If the crystals do not completely fill the cavity, then a geode is formed. The type of minerals in the water determine what type of crystals form inside the geode.

Geodes are a fun surprise of nature. You can’t know what you will find on the inside of a geode until you break it open!

During our trip to Phoenix we visited the Arizona Science Center. My daughter was very excited to find a large unopened geode in the gift shop. Here it is in its package:

The instructions said to keep it in its bag and bash it with a hammer. Here is my mini-geologist giving it a whack:

Well, it took a lot of banging and I was the one who had to deliver the final, fatal blow. I am not sure we centered our hammering too well (apparently it works MUCH better if you use a chisel first to score a line around the “equator” of the geode - see here for good instructions), but the crystalline interior is clearly visible:

Here is a close up of the surprise contents of our geode in the sunlight. Looks like lots of quartz and chalcedony:

You can find geodes in many science and museum stores, or order small and large geodes online at stores such as The Geode Gallery, The Desert USA Store or Mama’s Minerals.

My 6 year-old daughter’s favorite rock books:

Some good DK Publishing books for older children (9-12):

If you get REALLY into this geode-thing, here is a fascinating-sounding book all about geodes (written for adults, but mini-geologists might enjoy the photos):

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By Mom Unplugged, April 10, 2007 10:05 pm

I never would have thought it possible, but kids really can take care of a small garden, and enjoy it too! See my post Kids and Gardens and Spring, for a personal story.

Here are some tips that I have found helpful for gardening with my two oldest children (ages 4 and 6):

• Give them just a small area each and start with a small number of flowers. We did six flowers each. Anything more might be overwhelming.
• Annuals are great because they provide immediate and long lasting flowers, and you have the fun of choosing new varieties each year. Seeds take a long time for short attention spans, and perennials often don’t have a long flowering season, plus they don’t always look their best the first year.
• Kids love gear. Get them their own little kid-sized gardening gloves and they will be in heaven.
• For older children, or for a family project, you could try a themed garden. Here are some ideas:

1. Butterfly Garden - There are lots of resources on the web regarding what to plant to attract butterflies (check out The Butterfly Site - Gardening or The Garden Helper) . Choreopsis, Butterfly Bush, and Cosmos are some good ones to start with. If you can, and you really want to get into it, try to identify butterflies that are native to your area and also include plants that those species of caterpillar like to eat. Make sure your garden is in a sunny spot as butterflies only feed in the sun. Also provide a flat rock for warmth (the butterflies will sit on it and keep warm). You could even raise some butterflies to release in your garden. We did that last year and I was just as fascinated (if not more) than my kids! Check out a Live Butterfly Garden to get all you need to raise some Painted Lady butterflies, including mail-away certificate for larvae.
2. Scented Garden - Choose plants that have nice smells. Herbs, lavender, mint, and scented geraniums are good ones to start with. Be careful with the mint as it can be very invasive. If you don’t want it to take over your garden, then plant it in a pot. Just make a big enough hole, and stick in the plant, pot and all. It will look normal from the surface, but it won’t be able to spread. By the way, you can really have fun with scented geraniums. There are some that smell just like lemon, and even a variety that smells like chocolate (check out Scented Pelargoniums or Mountain Valley Growers for more info!).
3. Fairy Garden - Pick fanciful flowers: I like snapdragons (show your kids how the flowers can open and close like bunny mouths) and pansies (they look like they have faces). Anything small, and dainty, and lacy is nice too. Queen Anne’s Lace, Alyssum, Lilly of the Valley. Your kids can decorate the garden with little fairy houses made of sticks and rocks, with perhaps some acorn cap bowls of water for the fairies to drink!
4. Colored Gardens - Pick your child’s favorite color and plan a garden using all that color. You may or may not want to include white flowers or green foliage for contrast.
5. Night Time Gardens - White gardens really stand out at night. Plus some flowers only open at night. Night Gardening, The Evening Garden, and Moon Garden Flowers are good resources.
   
6. An Edible Flower Garden - Herbs are an obvious choice here, but also include Nasturtium, Borage and other edible flowers (research this carefully first since some flowers can be toxic if eaten!).

The possibilities are endless, so just have fun!

Of course, as with any garden, the key to success is two-fold: 1 - Speaking from experience, I know it is easy to go overboard at the nursery. Do not take on more than you and your kids can handle (making a list ahead of time and STICKING TO IT helps). 2 - Whatever you decide to do, be sure to pick plants that will do well in your climate and yard/soil conditions. For example, don’t pick shade-loving plants for a sunny spot, or sun-loving plants for a flowerbed in the shade. You will just set your family up for failure and disappointment. A local nursery or a book such as my favorite, Right Plant, Right Place: Over 1400 Plants for Every Situation in the Garden, can help with this.

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer puravida.