~ Small Dog Grooming Tips at She Knows

~ Cockroaches as Pets (no thanks!) from news.com.au

~ Homemade USS Enterprise Dog Costume at Wag Reflex

~ Should Your Dog Get a Flu Shot? at Embrace

~ Sink Drink Gadget for Cats at Celebrate Your Pet!

~ Senator Ted Kennedy Remembered As Dog Lover at Dogster

~ Vick on a Stick at Maine Pets

~ 6 Reasons Why Your Guinea Pig Might Be Biting at Guinea Pig Connection

~ Birds of a Feather at Puppies are Prozac

~ The 12 Most Fun, Direct and Eye-Opening Questions You Must Ask a Pet Sitter at Petsittingology

~ Baby Hedgehogs vs Baby Porcupines at Pawfun

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Weekend Pet Links

Both recipes below are great for kids to make, and come from easy-kids-recipes.com:

Homemade Bird Balls

1 pound of lard
1 jar of peanut butter
5 cups corn meal
6 cups oats
2 cups sunflower seeds
2 cups raisins

Mix everything together (this will be nice and messy!). Roll into about 5 or 6 small balls. Roll balls in sunflower seeds and raisins. Place the balls in a bird feeder and watch your feathered friends enjoy their snack.

…..

Bird Honey Stick

Honey
Bird seed

Find a stick that’s between 1 and 5 centimeters in diameter (2/5 inches to 2 inches). Cover the stick in honey with a brush or dinner knife. Pour bird seed on the stick until the stick is fully covered by the bird seed. You can leave it in the refrigerator to harden or just hang it on your bird’s cage.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Homemade Bird Treats

My son’s become quite the bird enthusiast ever since his uncle bought him the book Birding for Children by Art Minton and illustrated by Patrick Grogan. Truman has not only memorized what each of the birds looks like, he also knows that Flickers are zygodactyls and Chickadees would like gymnastics.

We’ve been doing a lot of bird watching lately. Last weekend Truman found the Sibley’s bird book on our porch and spent much of the afternoons studying new birds and their migration patterns. Now that’s just…interesting.

My fellow parenting blogger Mary Emma Allen has some great ideas about getting your kids interested in birds by having kids write a poem or story about birds.

Since Truman’s not ready to pen his own work just yet, we decided to make up bird songs. After rhyming a bit with the word bird, things got a bit…off color for my soon-to-be Kindergartener. So I reeled him in with the Ramones version of Surfin’ Bird. Perfect, since we are headed to the beach in a few days.

If you’re not up on your Ramones tunes, you can go to www.jango.com and create your own radio station for the Ramones. Be sure to select Surfin’ Bird since any one of a number of Ramones tunes will start playing when you click over. A word of warning … you may not want to play Beat on the Brat in the presence of your child.

Photos, JWJourney

Post from: Blisstree

Everybody Knows that the Bird is a Word

Image: sxc.hu

*Poetry - Your poem can be of any type, rhyming or free verse, about one bird or the numbers of birds you see around your home or on a trip.

*Nature Story – I often wrote these for children’s magazines.  I researched the characteristics and habits of a bird, trying to find something unique about each one.  Then I wrote about it, trying to make it interesting for others to read.

*Fiction Story – Can you think of a fiction story that involves a bird in the plot.  I wrote one about my daughter, when she was small, trying to help a bird build its nest.  She learned the bird only wanted something it has made, but it would use some of the materials she put out.

What would you and your youngsters like to write about birds?

Post from: Blisstree

Writing Tip – Kids Write About Birds

There are various ways you can do this:

• Simply keep a list of the birds you see.
• List the birds and write something about them.
• Add a sketch to the list and description.
• Write a story or poem about the birds you see.
• Make a papier mache model of a bird…or use other materials for a bird sculpture.
• Make a painting of some of these birds you see and list.

In my anthology, Tales of Adventure and Discovery, you’ll find two poems, The Red-Winged Blackbird and Lord Baltimore Oriole.   I’ve written stories published in magazines about birds.  Some were nature stories and others were fiction.

I became intrigued with sketching birds after seeing a watercolor painting my mom did when she was attending teacher training class.  (I still have this painting she did 80 years ago.  ) So I went on to sketch and paint birds, even doing paintings on commission for customers.

Do you and your children like to keep track of the birds around you?

Post from: Blisstree

Keeping a Bird Watching Journal

Image: sxc.hu

I’ve tried to pass this interest along to my daughter and grandchildren. I’ve sketched and painted birds, researched them, written poems and stories about them, and watched them build nests around our yard.  For the past couple of years, my grandchildren have enjoyed watching a pair of nuthatches (those birds that go down the tree head first) build a nest in the birdhouse just beyond our deck.  There they’ve raised a family, fought off marauding red squirrels, and taught the babies to fly.

When our daughter was young, we had a pair of blue jays make a nest near our side door.  By putting up a blind, my husband could take pictures of the baby birds hatching, being fed, and eventually learning to fly.

The robins in spring, the chickadees in winter, the humming birds among the red flowers in the garden, the owls hooting in the night, and the pileated woodpecker pounding on the trees in the woods all add greatly to the birdwatching experiences we enjoy with our youngsters.

What birdwatching do you have with your children?

Post from: Blisstree

Enjoy Birdwatching With Youngsters

Image: sxc.hu

• Cut out pictures of birds and flowers from magazines and catalogs.  Arrange them haphazardly or planned to tell a story, on poster board.  This is fun to do with youngsters in school or at home.  Perhaps they can write a poem about spring to accompany.
• Find around you in the yard, the woods (our yard is part of the surrounding woodland), or along a back road natural objects that remind you of spring and new life.  You might arrange them on a board with colored objects and even painted surfaces.
• Go through your photo stash, either a collection in a box or those saved on your computer.  Cut out various spring shapes and objects, then paste in a scrapbook or poster board.
• Use a shadow box and arrange spring items within it.  You’ll have a three dimensional effect.
• Think about a particular family tradition that takes place in spring…a trip, a walk through the woods, a hike up a mountain, the first picnic of the season.  Arrange pictures and objects reminiscent of these on a background of cloth, cardboard or wood.

What are your favorite materials for creating collages?

Post from: Blisstree

Creating Collages About Spring

So I went outside with her and enjoyed the scents and sounds of spring.  When we stop and wonder with our children, we’ll enjoy the small miracles of nature we often rush past in our hurried adult life.

• Listen to the bright red cardinal sing his merry song in the maple tree.
• Watch the robins bring straw and grass and other objects to build a nest.
• Splash through water in a puddle.  Never mind that feet get wet.
• Skip stones across the brook on a walk through the woods.
• Listen to squirrels chatter and giggle when they scold.
• Collect stones and fill pockets until they sag.
• Lift your face and let the breeze kiss your cheeks.
• Watch ants scurry from hole to hole.
• Thoroughly enjoy this phenomenon that’s SPRING with the children in your life.

What do you do with your children when spring comes?

Post from: Blisstree

Enjoy Spring With Your Children

AJ is a ringnecked parakeet. He’s been trained to play dead, shake, turn around, flip, and even play golf and basketball! And he’s got a sweet little voice, too, as he makes his way up to the basketball hoop.

Ringnecked parakeets, or rose-ringed parakeets, are a tropical parakeet species from Africa and Asia that are fast becoming popular pets around the world, though they were first domesticated by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Post from: Blisstree

AJ The Ringnecked Parakeet

Feathered Friends: 18 Paper-Pieced Blocks for Bird Lovers by Jette Norregaard Neilsen

Backyard Bird Quilts: 18 Paper-Pieced Projects by Jodie Davis

Applique Takes Wings: Exquisite Designs for Birds, Butterflies and More by Jane Townswick

Exotic Birds Critter Works Applique Quilting Pattern

Memories of a Lifetime: Birds and Butterflies: Artwork for Scrapbooks and Fabric-Transfer Crafts by Nancy Rosin

Do you have any favorite bird pattern books or patterns?

(Amazon image)

(For more information about the above books and where to obtain them.)

Post from: Blisstree

Books of Bird Quilts