Insect Study Introduction

I have compiled the list of resources that I used with my daughter when she went through her “insects are the best thing
ever” phase. I hope that it will help someone else when their child is clamoring to learn more about the little animals
that are all around us.

Books selected:

I used the DK Animal book as our main spine simply because it has gorgeous illustrations. The same can be said with the
Smithsonian Handbook, our additional spine. When using these books I simply let my daughter look at the pictures. If
she had some questions, then I would summarize the information for her. I never really read verbatim from these
books.

The books that were chosen for specific topics for supplemental readings were read to her aloud. I believe that almost
all of these books are targeted to ages 4-8. There is a 5 day schedule for most topics, but of course, that can be altered
to fit the energy level of your child or the enthusiasm for the subject.

Activities:

It is my belief that in the younger years, it is most important to hone our children’s observational skills. To that end, just
about all of the activities deal with raising or capturing insects for the purpose of observing them leisurely inside. If your
child is somewhat proficient with drawing, then I would incorporate some sketches into your science studies. I know
that Dover has a fairly beginner book on sketching insects (ISBN 0486405893) that may be helpful for both the parent
and the child.

If you are a strong believer in narrating, I have included a template for that as well. The sketch of the insect that is being
studied should be included on this page along with one to three facts that the child found to be particularly interesting.

I have also included links to the Discovery Streaming videos that we watched. This is certainly a wonderful subscription
that we have used many times. I know, however, that many people may not have access to these videos so I have tried
to give a short description of the particular clip that we watched.

For a fun “toy”, the Safari Ltd Insect Toob is relatively inexpensive and has brought lots of joy to my daughter. In
addition, it is a great tool for pointing out the main structures of the insect.

What we did:

For each insect, I would first show my daughter the pages in our spines. We would identify the main body parts and
locate the insect in our insect toob. I would also have printed out the black line of the insect from the enchanted
learning website. Depending on how enthusiastic she was on the subject we would consider doing some supplemental
readings as well.

If we could find the insect outside, then we would capture it and bring it inside for observation. The only insect that I
bought was the ant. Our ants are relatively small and we have an abundance of fire ants – both points are a negative for
observational studies.

Last thoughts:

Insects are beneficial creatures (although some are huge pests). I have run across several children that have been afraid
of all insects, even butterflies, because their parents did not appreciate the roles of insects in the world. I believe that
we must try to cultivate a healthy curiosity to every animal that we encounter.