Summer Activity for Children: The Wonderful World of Bugs

Explore the miniature world that is living right in your own back garden by trying some of these fun and educational bug centred summer activities for children. Children will not only have fun carrying out their experiments and observations they will learn about the various creatures the living in their environment. This summer activity for children is a great way to learn about nature while having fun. This summer activity will probably be particularly popular with little boys.

Ladybug Inn
This is an observation summer activity that lets children get an up close view of these pretty little bugs that are frequently found on flowers long grass and shrubbery. First your young scientist will need some tools for observation. These tools are a wide top glass jar, magnifying glass, twigs, grass, water source and a paper or plastic cup. The next step is to find some ladybugs to take up temporary resident in the Ladybug Inn. For this head out into the back yard armed with the paper or plastic cup in search of ladybugs. When one is found gentle brush the bug into the cup. After collecting a couple of ladybugs bring them inside and place them in the ladybug inn for up close observation. Keep the ladybugs in the inn for a few hours or couple of days before setting them free again. Use the magnifying glass to get a great look at their heads, legs, spots and antennas.

Bug Hotel
This summer activity for children is the same as the ladybug inn summer activity but involves more than one kind of bug. Create the hotel rooms by using a few different jars. In each jar make sure there is water and some grass and twigs. The go out and find some bugs. When each bug is found take note of what it is eating and place that in the hotel room with the bug. Once all the hotel rooms have been filled you can enjoy identifying and watching the various bugs. It may be fun to pretend to be a real entomologist by making drawings of each bug and conducting experiments.