Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

In addition to our pet dog Scooby, we always seem to have some sort of critter around here.......   We have borrowed bunnies from the farm....... We have borrowed and hatched chickens . We have collected Monarch eggs and caterpillars... borrowing them for a short time to observe and then we release the butterflies. (You will find oodles of posts about our caterpillar and butterfly experiences if you use the search box !) We have raised frogs from eggs The children absolutely love observing and interacting with the animals. So, after we completed our recent frog life cycle observations, we decided it was time for some new "pets." We filled our aquarium up with water and let it sit for a few days to stabilize before we took a trip to the store for some fish! Now, when we were at the store, Dane decided that it would be cool to get some Neon Glo-Fish (danios) and some Zebra Danios .  It was difficult to decide, and we had to make sure that the fish we chose woul...

Monarch caterpillars have only one source of food – milkweed. If you learn how to identify milkweed, you will have no problem finding and raising your own Monarch butterflies.  The milkweed plant is shown in the photo on the left.  Around here, you might start to see some eggs and larva in June, but you will see an increase in eggs after the plant blossoms. The blossoms on the milkweed in our area are a pinkish-purple color.(Of course when this all happens depends on our weather). When Monarchs lay their eggs, they do it on the underside of the leaves of the milkweed plant. You will only ever find one or two per leaf.  The eggs are very small, approximately 1 mm in diameter. The photo on the right shows a child pointing to a small egg on the milkweed leaf.  There are other things that could be on the leaf that are not eggs, including small bugs.  Here is a close up of the egg with a microscope to give you a better idea of the ...