Showing posts with label Question of the day. Show all posts

Question of the Day: How Do They Make Pudding Cups?




The lad and I have the joy of talking about all kinds of different things, not that long ago this questions came up:  just how do they make pudding cups?

I found this video to explain that process (even if it is with tapioca pudding which my lad would rather not have).  :)


This of course led me to wonder.... can one do this at home?

So I found this recipe Homemade Chocolate Pudding Snack Packs.   Look good don't they?   Oh oh.. and here's another one that I want to try (looks easier with less chance to muck it up). 

Anyways, there we go with a quick answer to "how do they make pudding cups".


A varied day

Today we started off our day by checking out a site that homeschool freebie of the day directed us to.  It's called Make Belief Comix.   This site has a variety of pages done up with clip art and make believe statements.  We had fun going through about 10 of them.  :)

This led to the lad's question of the day "how much water is in the oceean".   The answer was found here.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are over 1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers (332,519,000 cubic miles) of water on the planet. A cubic kilometer is the volume of a cube measuring one kilometer on each side. Almost all of this vast volume of water is in the ocean.
That's 36,614,237,300,000,000,000,000 gallons of milk!
World History
  
We continued reading about Knights and Castles. Learning today about how they practiced.

I asked the lad on Tuesday what animal he would like to study today and he said "spiders".  My response was okay..we can continue in our study and then he said "NO!   Can we study FLIES instead?"     I said "what?  you don't like your spider study"?   his response..."no mommy, I like it but I want to draw the flies too"!   So... my little template that I did up on studying an animal of the day with it's drawing aspect really appeals to him...That's cool!  :)   I'll need to figure out how to take a pic of it so I can link it for you.

So here I am sitting down trying to figure out flies to study and did you know there are TONS of different flies in the world?

We learned that
Flies, insects in the order Diptera, from your basic house fly to mosquitoes and gnats, are defined by having two wings.

and
 Here are some other things you should know about flies and fly control:
  • Depending on the species, the life expectancy of a fly is eight days to two months, or in some cases, up to a year.
  • Flies belong to the Order Diptera, meaning two wings. There are 16,000 species of flies in North America.
  • Flies plague every part of the world except the polar ice caps.
  • One pair of flies can produce more than 1 million offspring in as little as six to eight weeks.
  • As many as 33 million microorganisms may flourish in a single fly’s gut, while a half-billion more swarm over its body and legs.
  • Flies spread diseases readily because they move quickly from rotting, disease-laden garbage to exposed human foods and utensils.
  • Because they only have two wings, flies land often and therefore can deposit thousands of bacteria each time they land.
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture sources reveal that flies contaminate or destroy $10 billion worth of agricultural products.
  • For every fly seen, there are an estimated 19 more hidden from view. This means humans don’t even see most of the flies present at an infestation.
types of flies

  • bee fly
  • black fly
  • blow fly
  • bot fly
  • cheese skipper
  • crane fly
  • flesh fly
  • fruit fly
  • gadfly
  • gall midge
  • gnat
  • hessian fly
  • horse fly
  • house fly
  • maggot
  • mediterranean fruit fly
  • midge
  • mosquito
  • robber fly
  • sand fly
  • screwworm
  • tsetse
so we learned a few things about flies, and then moved on to learning about fire safety...we've finished that unit now.

Then played a game of mousetrap which involved setting up the board, following instructions, learning how to be a good sport and of course, having fun.  :)

this day worked out well for us.

question of the day: praying mantis

this is not the one we caught, just a pic off the internet.

Due to a caught praying mantis, and wondering if we could keep it, this question was raised: What do praying mantis eat?

We found an answer here.

The diet of a praying mantis most often includes various species of insects - including mosquitoes, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies, moths, spiders, roaches, bees, dragonflies, etc. Other than these insects, some praying mantis species also feed on lizards, frogs, rodents and birds. Almost all the species of mantis feed on insects, but those which can grow up to a length of 10-12 cm are generally the ones who take on birds, rodents and other creatures of their own size.
So, no, we can't keep it as it will eat our crickets. We released it to our rose of sharon bush.

How can you tell a girl from a boy?

The difference between a male and female praying mantis is that the female is larger and the abdominal is larger than a males abdomanal.
Adult female Mantises are larger than adult males. That's one way to tell them apart.

question of the day: house centipedes

Mommy... how do house centipedes grow up? How do they make babies?
This was a continuing query over a couple of days.

So we looked up house centipedes and learned they moult and get more legs with each moult. They live up to six years and takes about 2 years to mature.

Girl centipedes are bigger. Boy centipedes have a thicker tail.
The boy centipede puts sperm on the ground which the girl centipede uses to fertilize her eggs but they don't do this until after they touch antennae with each other.

They are GOOD bugs to have around (as much as they freak me out) because they kill spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish and other household pests.

Souces:
ehow and wiki and animal corner.

question of the day: how long do yellow jacket's live?

We have a yellow jacket living in our house. He buzzed us while doing the dishes.
He got away.

My lad who is somewhat concerned about getting stung asked "how long do yellow jacket's live?" I said.. I have no clue, shall we look it up?

We learned that MOST of them only live for the summer BUT the queen hibernates over the winter and she is the one who chooses where the next years colony will live.

Source: backyard Brigade and other internet sources that confirmed what Backyard said. :)

question of the day: how many birds can't fly?

Why do you ask?
http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Blu, in the video Rio, says that there are 40 birds that can't fly.

I looked it up and found the there are NINE birds that can't fly.
Being challenged by my son, I looked into this further and discovered the Blu is sorta correct. :) Answers.com gives us this.

Answer: NOTE: 6 are extinct. removing those ones, I counted 35 but two of them are NEARLY flightless. So there you have the question of the day answered.
Ratites

Ostrich
Emu
Cassowaries
Kiwis
Rheas

Podicipediformes (Grebes)
Junin Flightless Grebe
Titicaca Flightless Grebe

Pelicaniformes (Pelicans, Cormorants, et al)
Flightless Cormorant

Sphenisciformes (Penguins)
Penguins

Anseriformes (Waterfowl)
Magellanic Flightless Steamer Duck
Falkland Flightless Steamer Duck
White-headed Flightless Steamer Duck
Auckland Island Teal
Campbell Island Teal

Gruiformes (Cranes, Rails)
Woodford's Rail (probably flightless)
Weka
New Caledonian Rail
Lord Howe Woodhen
Calayan Rail
New Britain Rail
Guam Rail
Roviana Rail ("flightless, or nearly so" [Taylor 1998])
Snoring Rail
Inaccessible Island Rail
Henderson Island Crake
Invisible Rail
New Guinea Flightless Rail
Takahe
Samoan Wood Rail
Makira Wood Rail
Gough Island Moorhen
Kagu
Tasmanian Native-hen

Psittaciformes (Parrots)
Kakapo
Broad-billed Parrot (extinct)


Columbiformes (Pigeons, Doves)
Dodo (extinct)
Rodrigues Solitaire (extinct)
Viti Levu Giant Pigeon (extinct)


Caprimulgiformes (Nightjars)
New Zealand Owlet-nightjar (extinct)


Passeriformes (Perching Birds)
Stephens Island Wren (extinct)


Galliformes (Wildfowl)
Silkie
Domestic turkey