Going on a bug hunt

The other day I found this book at the thrift store....it has lots of great information about the, apparently millions, of creatures that can live in just a bucket full of soil (and that isn't counting the one-celled creatures that could only be seen with a microscope!)!  We had a great time this morning collecting various soil samples from around the house and then using a few simple tools to hunt for tiny creatures!  It was a really fun time with the boys!  

First they overturned the stepping stones in the garden to find bigger bugs....

Then we collected soil from the front yard garden, the vegetable garden, and the forest-from underneath the pile of compost.

Using a simple kitchen sieve,  I scooped up some soil and then shook it over some white paper and black paper.  The light colored bugs could be seen better on the black paper.  I did a house hunt for magnifying glasses and all I could find were some really small ones (kind of like the bugs we were hunting for!!!)!  This is now on my "to buy" list!  But really, the tiny bugs we were looking for could be seen with your unaided vision.

It was so fun to watch them search and get excited to see a teeny-tiny little creature!

Even Samuel was completely enthralled!  

Benjamin really liked the soil collecting part of the project :)  The soil from underneath the compost pile in the forest definitely had the most tiny creatures to find.  There were very tiny beetles, centipede type creatures, really tiny white worms (I just read in the book that these were probably round worms, a parasite!  Yuck!!!)...if you just shook the soil out onto the paper without using the sieve you could find somewhat larger, but still small creatures...sow bugs, slightly larger beetles, etc.

Benjamin is trying to pick up the tiny centipede type creature. 

And here he is trying to feed it to Samuel....

Samuel says, "Yuk--------

eeeeeeee!!!!!"

  With his little toothless cutie pootie face!  Samuel by the way is starting to talk, a lot, and it is so adorable.  Both Benjamin and Samuel are so stinkin' cute!  Steve and I are just so blessed to have these boys!  They are each so unique and so special---can't imagine life without one of them!