Thursday, April 3, 2008

Entomology 101

This year, for spring break, instead of any one person having to do an eight hour drive, we met in the middle. So, right now we are in Lansing, Michigan - 1/2 way between our house and my husband's family - who all live in Indiana. The other day we visited took five kids (8, 7, 3, 2, & 2) to the Michigan State University Bug House. If you live near Lansing, or are going to be near Lansing and have a budding entomologist at home, I highly recommend it. It was small, but so worth the trip. They wouldn't let the kids hold the scorpions or the tarantulas (understandably,) but pretty much everything else could come out of its cage for a visit. J liked the Vietnamese walking stick (above,) while pretty much everyone liked the giant millipede (below.)

Dark wing beetle
Australian leaf bug
Not only did they have live specimens for the kids to look at and handle, but they had toys for the toddlers and displays for the older boys. Plus, the admission was a donation, so it was quite affordable.

3 comments:

Shannon said...

I'm not big on bugs, but I know my Ty would LOVE this. The Australian leaf bug is kinda cute, though!
*aka theespinozafamily

misschris said...

How very fun. Bugs really are pretty neat. And they bring out the 'Gil Grissom' in you!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Very cool for your little ones.