Butterfly Craft
Bird Feeders
There is nothing like your child discovering their first horned toad, or seeing a nest of baby birds. This is basic nature study. Collect feathers, leaves, stones, shells. The beginning of discovery. With several of these sites, you can watch eagles in their nest, lions on the prowl or bears wandering the woods. All in the comfort of your home.

But realize that even if you only have a balcony as a backyard, you can discover nature with your child on walks or by gardening or by computer. Hope you enjoy them.

Exploring Texas, virtual field trips throughout Texas

Watch Eagles in the Washington Mountains

Educator's Guide to Birding by Cornell University gives you  a complete course in birding.  Lots of activities and fun things for you and the kids.

North American Butterfly Association the title says it all.  Plan to stay awhile on this site.

Texas A&M has a web site for gardening with kids.  This site is too much fun and can be a whole unit study for you and your kids.  These people love to teach what they know, and they know everything!!


Whooping Cranes  on the US Geological Survey Site. Their main page has lots of great things to explore also.  Since we live in Texas, the nesting place for these magnificent birds, you can plan a field trip to Port Aransas to visit the birds in the Winter.  Just be sure your children are old enough to enjoy getting up early, bundling up and going on a boat in the middle of winter :-)

Bugs Bugs and More Bugs!

Bugs in the Classroom by TAMU, great lesson plans, even if they won't bring the bugs as far as you are.

Their main bug page has all kinds of great info and ideas.  This is more of a Dad site, with great info about gardens and pest.  The other site above is more child friendly.

Colorado State has a great “Insect Site” to view pictures of various common bugs

Want to cook up a few bug recipes? Check this site out!!!! You will be surprised how “nutritious” bugs can be!
Sorry, I haven’t personally tried any of these recipes myself!!!!

Dragonflies – one of the most beautiful insects to study!

University of KY Entomology Site gives great information to help you collect insect specimen!  Great Kids Page!

The Virtual Insectary – a literal Bug Zoo online!

Steve’s Ant Farm Online – yes, you guessed it… a virtual cam captures a true ant farm!
 
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Desert Life, a complete study of all the deserts in the United States.

Picture Galleries - Amphibians and Reptiles, lots of great studies and pictures and activities.

The Audubon Society Website

Help track birds each spring and fall
Journey North is a great way to join thousands of people while staying in your back yard.  Help to count and follow the migration of animals north.  A reciprocal site is in Journey South for the other time of year.

BUTTERFLIES:

Butterflies of Texas with lots of pictures and families of butterflys

Texas Butterfly Festival held each year in October in Mission, Texas

Nebraska Butterfly Gardening for planting those butterfly drawing plants!!

Butterfly Gardening, everything you need to know is on this site.

Monarch Watch : Dedicated to Education, Conservation and Research, this site has lesson plans and fun activities for the kids

Smithsonian's Butterfly exhibits

An award winning butterfly site

Ok, I'm browsing the freakyfreddies.com site and came across this great kids site for oceans (yes, it's save the world slanted). There is a booklet for teachers, free colorful poster and other items available from our government. This is bookmarked for my kids.

http://www.worldbirdcenter.com/
World Birding Center

http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/zoo/hilights/webcams/webcams.htm
National Zoo Cams, rainy day mess up your trip to the zoo, visit one in another city.

http://moomilk.com
found by Nikki, this is what she had to say about it:
This morning my son and I were playing a little game of guess that animal. I tell him little clues until he guesses the animal. When we happened onto the cow, he got very excited about cows and their milk.
How does it get from the cow to my refrigerator? : ) Well we found a site that has a virtual tour about how milk gets from the cow to the fridge. It has interactive games too.

http://member.aol.com/acalendar/August/watermelon.html
For some interesting "stuff" on watermelons, try this site:

http://www.ncga.com/07curriculum/main/index.html
Good site with curriculum about corn

http://www.africam.com/
Here is the African cam site where you have choices of several cameras set up all over Africa:

http://www.selu.com/~bio/wildlife/
Features a gallery of wildlife photos (from mammals to reptiles and birds) and animal sounds by photographer and
Webmaster Tim Knight.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
Kids @ National Geographic

http://earthsky.worldofscience.com/Kids/Links/
a list of links, nature studies and science in general

http://www.worldkids.net/pooh/100aker.html
Just for Fun and a break, visit Pooh's 100 acre woods and play games