I had seen this idea on pinterest and it was really for the homeschool mama, looking for some science activities for her kiddos. BUT, I just knew this was something that all three of my kids would eat up. As much as they said "EW" and "GROSS" at the beginning, their fascination got the better of them and they have all spent significant time playing with the wormies, feeding the wormies, and examining the wormies!
All we needed for this project was an empty salad container (*organic baby spinach from dinner a few nights ago), some dirt from the garden and of course.....WORMS!
Did you know that your local Walmart carries worms? Oh yes. You go to the sporting goods section and they are located in a frig near the counter......as bait for fish. Well, we just saved these little wormies lives! We decided on some lovely large night-crawlers and some red worms (which just look like the typical worm you find in your garden anyway).
Dump the lovelies in your salad container, pour some dirt in, add some weeds and leaves (they added some mint and rosemary from the garden ha!) and water it down. You can already see the paths in the sides (which is why it is good to have a clear container). Fascinating stuff, these weird, blind creatures.......and if your kids are anything like mine at all, they will LOVE it! (and once your kids get tired of the worm farm, you can empty them into your garden to turn over your soil. Yay!)
What a brilliant idea! You are sooooo right that kids love worms and they can learn so much from them. And what they mean to a garden is beyond words. In fact, a garden with no worms is probably a garden on the decline. Meaning that worms aerate the soil, that plants absolutely need to grow healthy. Also, after they process the underground vegetation, what is expelled out the south end of a north bound worm is like "black gold" to a farmer. That's what helps decompose my compost pile from grass, hay, table scraps and manure etc. to the best "black gold" the can then be used as a side dressing around all by garden plants, flowers etc. Great job babe, tell your kids about all the good the worms do and they will benefit beyond words. Father
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