Bug Box

This week we went to the Bug Box, a small insect museum, in Fredericksburg with our field trip group. The field trip was a hit with the kids and adults.
The museum is pretty small. It consists of about 1 1/2 rooms of displays organized into three sections--desert, forest, and aquatic habitats. Since our group was small (just 6 children this time) the kids got to help feed the lizards and turtles that are part of the exhibits.
As part of our educational program the kids got to touch a tarantula and hold Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches. Now my oldest is saving his allowance to buy cockroaches and supplies for their terrarium. (At least he's not asking to get a bird for the moment. I'm super scared of birds!) The program focused on insects being an integral part of ecosystems that humans need to respect.
After our museum visit, we went to Loriella Park just outside of Fredericksburg. That was great. There was a play structure, but the real highlight was the paths through the woods. They boys started off searching for cockroaches. They found centipedes, beetles, a turtle, a salamander, mushrooms, lichens--no cockroaches, though. A small stream runs across the path we took and the paths were steep. Some of our party didn't have very good shoes for hiking through the mud and loose dirt (something to keep in mind for next time). There is also a path through a meadow, but we didn't have time to explore that option.
My boys and I enjoyed the trip. The only problem was the lack of follow through in our group. The cost to just tour the exhibits at the Bug Box is $2 per person or you can pay a flat fee to have an educational program for up to 25 people. I arranged for the educational program because all but one family in our group originally said they liked the idea of going. In the end only three families attended the field trip; there were only 10 of us in the entire group. The presentation was good, but with so few of the field trip group families participating it ended up being rather costly for those of us who did attend.

www.bugbox.net