Getting kids outside and teaching them about insects is an important part of childhood. Encourage kids to not be afraid of bugs. Exploring safe creatures such as the Pill Bug or Rollie Pollie‘s as most kids call them is a great way to start young explorers off with insects. Kids can learn about the stages of a bugs life from egg to adult. They can also do a bit of research at their local library after a day of outdoor play and learn that Pill bugs are actually not insects, they are crustaceans. They are related to shrimp and crayfish, breathe with gills, and need humidity or moisture to survive.
With this knowledge they could build a Rollie Pollie habitat to study and observe these creatures.
Share nature with kids while they are young and you will create, in them, a life long love of the outdoors. This is important to cultivate future scientists, conservators and explorers along with naturalists and artists inspired by nature.
Insect habitats teach kids so many life lessons. Ants demonstrate the importance of working together. Praying mantids teach children about the food chain. Butterflies exhibit the beauty of metamorphosis bot to mention lessons in biomimicry. Bugs and insects make ideal pets for children who cannot own larger domesticated animals due to allergies, housing restrictions, or family finances. There are many prefabricated habitats available in the marketplace, but parents and children can also build their own. Check out this bug mansion:
Part Two is a 7 minute Visualization Meditation
If I set aside time everyday to write I feel whole. Writing time calls for prep time this means good smells from fresh flowers, a great pen, Hot tea for sipping and ice water. When the weather is beautiful as it so often is in Phoenix, I sit outside on my back porch and write. It is a delicious life.
It’s that time of year – January makes us contemplate the year ahead and all of the things we’d like to accomplish. I am not big on making resolutions but instead I focus on setting goals. I sat down recently and made goal lists for the coming year and when I painted them I thought to myself that I should share these as inspiration sheets. So here are short and long term goal sheets. Only write down three to five goals as that allows you to be more focused. Also, be specific with your goals because being to broad or too abstract allows you to get out of it.
Download the high res PDF here: Long Term Goals Sheet
Download the high res PDF here: Short Term Goals Sheet
This amazing list of Woody Guthrie’s from the 1940’s brings such a smile. It is at once delicious and profound and thoughtful and tragic. What a beautiful tale in both words, hopes and tiny doodles. I think it would be such a good idea to create drawn journal pages that are resolutions or goals for the coming year. Hmmmm . . . . stay tuned for that.
Woody Guthrie’s resolutions found on Boing Boing
