Science Time!

The other day the kids and I were outside just playing in the front yard, trying to let the minutes tick by as we were waiting for dinner time to get closer. It had been raining so different creatures were out and my kids were enjoying looking at and learning about each creature.

Other than just insects we saw worms and a salamander.

Both kids enjoyed playing with the worms by trying to pick them up them putting them in the grass where they were safer instead of on the cement. 

The salamander on the other hand was something that all of us wanted to learn more about. We started by using my phone to Google Lens the salamander to figure out what exactly it was. I have only ever seen black salamanders previous to this, so I was really not sure what were were looking at. Once we got that figured out, the kids wanted to learn more. 

We went inside and fell down the rabbit hole. I did some minor Google searches to learn about the salamander. Things like where they normally live, how they grow, what they eat, what eats them, etc. We got to a point where the kids had soaked up the information they wanted, but they wanted to see some move and watch how they act. So on to YouTube. I pulled up some videos and we learned how salamanders live in captivity. The salamander videos soon turned into snake videos. The snake videos showed things like how snakes lay eggs and how eggs are incubated after they are laid. We soon found ourselves watching videos about an alligator that was a pet. 

In all, we spent at least two, if not three, hours learning about creatures just because we went outside for twenty minutes. A lot of the time I don't really push my kids to ask questions about the things outside. Most of the time when we are outside I want to have my mental break. I am not saying that this is bad, but we need to remember that this is a great place to start learning about completely new things. 

Go out side. Walk in the woods or in your grass. What can you find in your back yard that you can learn about? Don't be afraid to answer the questions or find the answers. Allow your kids the chance to ask the questions even if you don't know how to answer them. Show them how to research and learn. Being on the computer or screens isn't the end of the world. Now, did we need to spend like two hours watching videos, no. But that's besides the fact.