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Backyard Habitat

Tiny living things we've found in our backyard in the last few weeks.


"Look Mom! There's a tree frog."

"Where? I don't see it."

"Right there."

Can you find it?

Toads LOVE our backyard.

"Mom! Mom! Come quick! We found these insect eggs under a leaf on a vine!"


We brought the leaf in and set it on the window sill in the kitchen. We spritzed it with water from time to time. The egg cases turned orange and a few days later we watched little red and black bugs hatch. They look like tiny lady bugs but I don't think they are. Any experts out there who can identify these?

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Anonymous said…
Awesome. I love ladybugs. we accidentally hatched flying blood suckers once. It was horrible.
October 30, 2007 at 9:35 PM
Anonymous said…
WOw, what a great learning experience!!
October 30, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Janelle said…
I am no expert at bugs or anything creepy. But I do know a cute picture of a cool mom when I see one. I love the wagon pic.

I also love how you enjoy learning and letting your kids explore the world around us. You have a very unique hands-on approach to home-schooling.

It is encouraging to read.
October 30, 2007 at 11:45 PM
Alana said…
I'm not expert, but that is way cool;-)
October 30, 2007 at 11:45 PM
Joyismygoal said…
cute I love those shots good job.
October 30, 2007 at 11:46 PM
tammi said…
Yeah, I would not likely have ever brought those eggs into the house -- and now that I've read about hatching flying blood-suckers, you can bet it's never going to happen! You are a much cooler mom than I am, obviously!
October 31, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Kate said…
valleygirl,

I would not say that I am a cooler mom than you. After reading (and laughing til the tears ran down my face) about the flying bloodsuckers, I don't know that we will repeat this experiment.

Once we had an ant farm. The ants were shipped from Colorado. They were attack ants. The kind that bite. Somebody knocked the farm off the counter and there was an ant stomping frenzy to corral the little chompers. We've never had another ant farm. I do learn from the error of my ways...just slowly.

Kate
October 31, 2007 at 10:41 AM
Heather C said…
Ummm... no clue... and ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

I'm thinking it's a good thing my kids are NOT homeschooled anymore. :) Bugs... ick.

I love your approach to learning, though... and the frog was cute :)

Heather
October 31, 2007 at 2:11 PM
Jennifer@DoingTheNextThing said…
Those frogs are adorable! I think the bugs are box elder bugs ... we get a lot of those around here, too. Don't you just LOVE interacting w/ nature? Especially when you've got so much in your own backyard. God is so good.
October 31, 2007 at 3:05 PM
lori said…
Hey there,
If you should KEEP the frogs, we can tell you all about the care and keeping of them...we have added 2 to our family...
BEWARE, they only eat LIVE crickets...
BUT they are sweet little guys or girls, I'm not sure~
:)
FUN!!
lori
October 31, 2007 at 5:12 PM
Kate said…
Jennifer,

Thanks for the info. Box elder bugs. I'm on my way to Google it.

Kate

Lori,

If I ever get brave enough to raise frogs I'll email you for info.

Glad you two are backyard nature lovers too.

Kate
October 31, 2007 at 10:22 PM
L.L. Barkat said…
I just showed this to my kids. They were enchanted!
November 1, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Sarah Markley said…
So cool. I just think you are brave to bring bug eggs into your kitchen without knowing what they are before! =)
November 1, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Kate said…
Sarah,

Not brave. Clueless. I guess we brought them in because we had just seen a picture of ladybug eggs and I thought they looked like the picture. I didn't think at all about the zillion poisonous creatures we have in these parts.

Kate
November 1, 2007 at 6:54 PM
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