Making Pests Playtime: Fun Ways to Teach your Kids about Insects at Home

Stay-at Home

With so many people working from home currently, and lots of schools conducting online classes for kids, you may have found yourself spending more time with your little ones than you ever expected. With their often short attention spans, it can be hard to keep them occupied with different activities. Thankfully, there’s something close to all our homes that can keep them busy: pests!

Simply walking outside or playing in the backyard can often lead to bug discoveries for little ones and, when they’re not invading your home, they can be very fun and interesting to learn about. The following are some ideas of crafts and activities you can do with your kids to both keep them occupied and help teach them about insects.

Activities with Insects

Thankfully, not all insects are pests and you can potentially find some interesting insects in your own yard such as cicadas, butterflies, or even dragonflies. With these bugs, and more, you can try some of the following activities:

• Bug Explorer – take your little one into your back yard or to a park to try and find bugs. Once you find them, you can encourage your child to think more deeply about their discovery by asking questions such as the following:
  • What do you think it is?
  • Why do you think it’s here?
  • What do you think it eats?
  • What does it make you wonder about?
• Guess That Noise – For this game you can either use your environment or even try looking up some unique insect noises online. Take turns with your kids and try to stump one another with the fun sounds that different bugs make.
• Pet for a Day – Some insects can survive rather well in captivity for brief periods of time. If you have a little bug/critter box, try working with your kids to create an environment for a little insect guest. After the proper environment is made, you can spend time hunting and catching a little bug for the box. This is a great way for your kids to get a chance to observe an insect up close for a few hours before releasing it back into its environment.
• Catching and Releasing Fireflies – a tried-and true, timeless, and fun activity. When the sun goes down, see who can catch and release the most fireflies!

Insects and Crafts

For curious little entomologists, making fun insect-themed crafts can keep them occupied for hours. Here are some fun arts and crafts you can try with them:

• Invent and Insect – Challenge your little ones to design and color an insect of their own making
• Insect Origami – This activity may be better suited for older children, but can lead to hours of fun with some cool souvenirs at the end.
• Draw the Bugs from Your Backyard – after exploring the insects of your yard, let your kids get creative with different kinds of drawings.
• Draw Your Room from the Perspective of an Ant – this can get very fun for kids and you can even encourage them to tell a whole story with their drawing.

Pest-Free Playtime

Kids can find insects super fun and engaging, but they’re never fun if they’re invading your home. If your interactions with pests goes from playtime to problematic, call us right away – we will be sure you and your family are pest-free so that playtime can carry on.

Citations

Pearson, G. (2020) Learning at Home With Bugs, Entomology Today. The Entomological Society of America. Available at: https://entomologytoday.org/2020/03/27/learning-at-home-with-bugs/ (Accessed: October 2020).