All Seasons Sweet to Me: All God's Critters

Growing up, each week of our summer was assigned a different theme by my mom that included activities, treats, outings, books, crafts and more. My mom felt very strongly that she wanted to keep our minds active and engaged during the summer months. It's often too easy to let video games, TV, and other mindless activities fill the leisure hours of a child's summer vacation and in fact, research shows that the average child loses 20% or more of their previous school year's knowledge by the time the next school year begins. For this reason, and I imagine because my mom also didn't want bored children nagging her for three long months, my mom created her "Summer Magic"- themed weekly "units." I can honestly say that aside from stimulating our young brains with cultural and educational activities, her weeks of "Summer Magic" were just downright fun!

That's why I am so excited to do my mom's "Summer Magic" units with my little boy this summer, and even more excited to share them with you!! I hope they will give you some great ideas of how to have fun with your kids this summer while keeping their minds active and engaged!

So without further adieu. . .

WEEK 1:

Here's how to have the buggiest bug week ever as you celebrate all of God's "critters."

Eat Bugs!

Have a picnic at the park (or your house) and bring lots of bugs to eat! Here's what we serve up:

Lady Bug Cream Cheese Crackers

Crackers spread with cream cheese; with red jam for "spots" and black licorice cut to look like "heads."

Spider Sandwiches

Sandwiches (any kind you prefer, I did peanut butter) cut into small circles with pretzel sticks for legs.

Fuzzy Caterpillars

Cheetos Puffs

Ants on a Log

Celery sticks topped with peanut butter and raisins.

Catch Bugs!

Head outside with your bug net and a bug box or jar to see if you can catch any bugs! Even if they get away, at least try to spot as many bugs as you can!

I found this darling Melissa and Doug© Brand bug catching puzzle. The magnetic net "catches" the bugs! My little guy LOVED it!

Bugs in a Jar!

I'm not a fan of real bugs, especially the kind in our neck of the woods (cockroaches and scorpions). So I came up with a fun alternative to the traditional idea of catching bugs in a jar. It works just like an easter egg hunt, except instead of plastic eggs you hide toy bugs around your yard. Then, arm your kids with a mason jar or bug box and set them loose to search for the "bugs." As they find each one, they can put them in their jar!

What do you suppose?

A bee sat on my nose.

Then what do you think?

He gave me a wink

And said, "I beg your pardon,

I thought you were the garden."

~English Rhyme

Be a Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Act out the story and eat the foods the caterpillar does in Eric Carle's Book The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

My mom had the idea to skewer the foods from the book and then, as she read the book to us, have us act out the story and eat the foods as the caterpillar does.

To make Very Hungry Caterpillar Shish Kebabs, skewer one slice or piece of each of the following in this order:

Apple

Pear

Plum

Strawberry

Orange

Chocolate Cake

(I used brownie bites)

Ice Cream Cone

(This obviously doesn't skewer very well so I used mini snack sized ice cream cones and just brought them out of the freezer at that point in the story. Drumstick© Brand or Trader Joes© makes these mini ice cream cones.)

Pickle

(Use snack sized or mini pickles)

Swiss Cheese

Salami

(Use beef stick salami or a cooked bratwurst sliced)

Lollipop

(Like the ice cream, a lollipop doesn't skewer, so I just had lollipops on hand for when we got to that point in the story.)

Cherry Pie

(I used a slice of a cherry danish which skewered nicely)

Sausage

(Use Lil' Smokies sausages. Cook first.)

Cupcake

(Use mini cupcakes)

Watermelon Slice

Green Leaf

(1 spinach leaf or leaf of lettuce)

Now that your shish kebabs are ready, you're all set to be a Very Hungry Caterpillar.

1. Begin reading the book. The Caterpillar starts out as a small egg on a leaf which hatches. Have your kids roll up in a ball on the floor to pretend like they are an egg. As the caterpillar hatches in the story, have them pretend like they too are hatching.

2. Next, as the caterpillar eats each food, have your kids likewise eat that piece of food off the skewer.

3. When the Caterpillar is full (and so are your children), he forms a cocoon. Roll your kids up tightly in a blanket or towel to make their own cocoon. As the Caterpillar emerges from the cocoon, have your kids likewise break free.

4. Now the Very Hungry Caterpillar is a butterfly. Have your kids put on wings and antennas and run wild as beautiful little butterflies!

We made a pair of our own butterfly wings using poster board and elastic. I followed the instructions on this blog here! My son had a fun time coloring and decorating his wings!

He also loved coloring these free coloring pages while I made our shish kebabs.

These coloring pages can be downloaded and printed here!

. . . . .

I also just thought these were so cute, and had to include them here. They are a fun alternatives to our shish kebabs, incase you're interested:

Give Bug Reports

Head to the Library to check out books on bugs! Below are a few of the ones my son and I found at our local library. Then, have each of your children pick a bug they want to know more about and help them to research facts and information. Have them write up what they learn and include some fun pictures of their bug and then take turns presenting their bug findings to each other! This activity can easily be adapted to fit the various age levels of your children. Older children might find the internet or encyclopedias helpful to learn about their specific critter while youngsters, like my toddler, can enjoy simply reading books with you and coloring pictures.

This series of insect books by Backyard Books are DARLING and teach awesome facts about each bug! Check them out!

Make Bugs!

Make some fun bug crafts with your kids. There are a million ideas out there, but here are just a few:

Thumb Print Bugs

http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/10-bug-craft-activities

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/bug crafts

Watch Disney's A Bug's Life!

Visit an Insect Museum

A lot of cities actually have one of these or at least a collection of bugs on display within another larger museum. Our science center, in fact, is dedicating this whole summer to bugs with a new exhibition called Pestology. What a perfect addition to our Critter's Week! You might want to stop by an insect museum where you live to enjoy an up close and personal bug experience with your kids and learn a ton about bugs while you're at it!

Sing and Dance to the song
The Ugly Bug Ball

Once a lonely caterpillar sat and cried,
To a sympathetic beetle by his side.
"I've got nobody to hug,
I'm such an ugly bug."
Then a spider and a dragon fly replied,
"If you're serious and want to win a bride,
Come along with us,
To the glorious
Annual ugly bug ball . . ."

Visit the International Peace Gardens

(or another monument to peace and cultural diversity)

My mom got the name for this week's theme from a notable song "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir" written by Bill Stains. (It is now in book form, see below). The point of the song is that every living thing from the human race down to the tiniest bug has value and an important role to play.

While our Critters Week centered around bugs -bug activities, bug foods, bug books - the deeper meaning in this particular week's theme was to teach us children to have respect for all living things- all people, all races, all creatures, all critters.

In our discussion of the idea of having respect for the diversity of God's "critters," we would visit the International Peace Gardens- a beautiful garden in Salt Lake that is dedicated to world peace. I'm so sad that while living away now, I can't visit the gardens this year- and even more sad to find that our current hometown doesn't have a similar monument or garden like this.

"The International Peace Gardens, located on the bank of the Jordan River in Salt Lake City, was founded as a citizenship project and as a lesson in peace and understanding between nations. The endeavor is evidence that people from many lands can unite in building a monument to peace....Each participating nation group is allotted a plot in which to create a garden with native plants, garden architecture, and statues of world peace leaders typical of the homeland and its culture. The Peace Gardens currently represents the cultural diversity of twenty-six nations and encourages pleasant wandering and meditation by visitors."

You can learn more about this Garden here!

"And He inviteth them all to come unto Him and partake of His goodness; and He denieth none that come unto Him, black and white, bond and free, male and female and he remembereth the heathen and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile."

2 Nephi 26:33

After our visit to the gardens, for lunch we would enjoy food from a different country in order to show respect and interest for others' cultures. In so doing, we would try ethnic fare that is more unusual to us than say Mexican or Chinese. In the past we've had Greek, Indian, Japanese and Vietnamese. This year as part of our Critters Week, my family decided to go Polish with pierogies and kielbasa!