So if you haven’t noticed already, I have a thing for books. I’m building our library with good supplemental and living books to keep on hand. Having kids from age 5 – 11, here’s a list of anatomy and health related books for my library. I’ve marked the books that we have already and the others are books that I hope to add to our library soon.

The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference) (We have this one already. My 5 year old science guy goes through it again and again and again!)

Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)

Oh the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You!: All About Staying Healthy (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library) We have this one, too. It’s a good one. Oh yes, and it does mention exercise. Ouch, my toes.

Eat Healthy, Feel Great (And we also have this one, too. I figure while we’re studying the human body it’s a good time to talk about good nutrition to fuel it!) =)

Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition

Supermarket

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track (Sears Parenting Library)

Originally published August 3rd, 2009. Mr. Crabs is no longer “with us.” But we enjoyed having him so much that we want to get several more soon.

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Our fiddler crab, Mr. Crabs

You can’t get much more hands on with life science than you can get by having live animals. Some kids get to grow up with farm animals, observing the life cycle’s ebbs and flows right before their very eyes. We don’t go that “all out: around here. Though at one point in my motherhood – back when I only had ONE child – I had a vision of our house full of all sorts of pets, for my daughter’s enjoyment and education both. I imagined we’d have some pet hamsters or mice (I had mice in high school,) a bird or two, maybe an iguana or turtle,.. you know a cornucopia of life science right at our fingertips.

These days, having three children, I already feel like we live in a zoo, and my favorite sort of pet is.. shall we say.. LOW MAINTENANCE. Like my beta fish. Oh how I love his low maintenance needs. I tolerate the cats because they earn their keep. But even they annoy me when they’re underfoot meowing at me because they don’t want the food in their dish and have deluded themselves into thinking I’m going to refill it with fresh food from the bucket and spoil their pampered royal selves. As if.

And although we did set up an aquarium at the beginning of the year with some Christmas money…our little fish aren’t really that “sciency.” About the most educational they have been is learning what kind of fish they are and learning how to cope with their passing on to the big toilet bowl in the sky. Now, fiddler crabs on the other hand… hello science!

We returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find that my son’s aquarium snail had died while we were away, so we went the next day to pick out a new one and came home with a fiddler crab instead. Little did we know (having bought him at Wal-Mart and not having been educated by the live fish attendant who knew next to nothing about fish) that he was not a good tank mate for our other fish.

In fact he tried to eat them.

So he moved out and we started reading up on fiddler crabs.

There is surprisingly little known about fiddler crabs and their care but over the last few weeks, we’ve learned that most importantly, fiddler crabs need slightly brackish water. That is, slightly salty. They can survive in fresh water, but they won’t live as long a life. We read about their food needs and habitat preferences, social characteristics and also, about molting.

Mr. Crabs and his ghostly husk.

Fiddler crabs molt. And somehow they also regenerate lost limbs in the process. Which is really cool, by the way. And even cooler when you see it in person. This morning we woke to find Mr. Crabs had a ghostly friend floating in his water. Overnight he had molted his old shell off (I have no idea if I’m using that as a verb correctly) and also, grown a new back left leg and front left claw! And by the way, did you know they EAT the old shell? It’s a way of re-absorbing the calcium they lost with the loss of the old shell.

Crabs regenerate lost limbs. Now THERE'S science for you.

Okay, y’all.. there was nothing more than STUBS there last time I looked!!

So how did go from that to limbs practically overnight?

And about that front claw.. males have one small eating claw and one large display claw. If they lose a display claw, the eating claw will begin to grow larger as they begin to regenerate a new small eating claw. (I guess the ability to attract females ranks higher than the necessity of eating.) So Mr. Crabs’ formerly small eating claw is now slightly larger and will continue to grow and after a 2nd or 3rd molt (about every 2 months) will reach it’s full size.

With the loss of the hard outer shell, his new shell will be vulnerable for a few days until it hardens.

I still refuse to pick him up or touch him, but I have to confess that the fiddler crab turned out to be quite the educational and fun impulse buy! I’m even tempted to pick up a few more as everything I’ve read indicates they are social creatures and I never did intend for him to be alone in the first place. We’ve managed to keep this one alive for several weeks and his ability to molt indicates he’s in good health so I think it’s safe to say we can probably handle a couple more. Don’t you think?

I do need to get a bigger tank first tho.  Mr. Crabs is just living in a temporary “hotel” of sorts, complete with backyard “swimming pool,” “rock climbing wall,” “room service” and a “room with a view.”

Oh the hard life of a fiddler crab.

To learn more about fiddler crabs:

• Exotic Pets: How to Care for Fiddler Crabs
• Keeping Fiddler Crabs as Pets
• How to Care for Your Fiddler Crabs

Also, here’s a youtube vidoe of a fiddler crab molting. Really cool – but you may want to turn off the music.

• Fiddler Crab Molting

**This post has been happily submitted to “Your Life, Your Blog.” Check it out! **

My 4 year old son has been obsessed with states of matter lately (thank you “Sid the Science Kid” and “Zula Patrol.”) He’s constantly pointing out “this is a solid,” and “that is a liquid.” And of course, since he’s four, he’s going to eventually follow up with some kind of “why” question.

Like: “Momma, why do the eggs turn from a liquid to a solid when you cook them?”

Uhhhhh….

…

So it was bound to happen that while we were eating Jello my Little Prince would turn and ask, “Momma, is Jello a liquid or a solid?”

Now THAT, I did remember from science class! The answer is “Neither.” But I couldn’t remember what it was called so I turned to Google because I *heart* Google. (Hey – remember back when we used to look these things up in encyclopedias? (Insert hysterical laughter here.)

I found the answer in several places across the internet but this one had the best explanation that my kids would understand:

Gelatin itself is made of a protein. (Proteins are solids at most temperatures.) When you mix the jello powder into the hot water, the protein actually dissolves in the water. But like many things, it’s harder for the protein to stay dissolved in cold water than in hot water. So as the solution cools down, the protein comes out of solution and turns back into a solid. But it doesn’t just form a solid that settles onto the bottom, like a mixture of water and sand would.
As the protein molecules come out of solution, they stick to each other. When they stick to each other, they form a complicated matrix that runs all through the jello. You can think of it as a giant mixed-up jungle gym of little protein molecules all sticking together. They water molecules get caught up inside this matrix so they can’t just drain out.
So all things said and done, jello is basically a solid suspended in a liquid. The scientific word for this is a ’colloid’. If you heat it up enough, the solid will become dissolved again it will become a liquid all through. But if you cool it down enough, the liquid water will freeze and it will become a solid all through.

So jello is neither a liquid, nor a solid, it is a colloid. You learn something new everyday. Even while eating your dessert. ; )

And just for grins and giggles – you can make your own Jello-style gelatin dessert at home using real fruit juice and gelatin (which we now know is a protein – that adds nutritional value RIGHT?) and without all the artificial flavors and colors. Imagine turning it into a whole science lesson! Make a bowl of jello, chill and set. Put a small serving in the freezer, put a small serving in a sauce pan. The best part? Eating the rest of the jello while you wait for your jello experiments to freeze and melt!

Oh – and for those of you wondering about the eggs? Protein plays an important part in that answer, too. (Read Scene 6 or watch the 2nd video segment.)

Science and food. Food and science. I like this relationship. =)

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

Take your children to the stars at KidsAstronomy.com! Children of all ages will learn about outer space, deep space, the solar system and exploring space. There’s also a teacher’s corner and free online lessons! Outta this world! Sorry – couldn’t resist.
If your children are obsessed with the stars – and not Hannah or the Jonas’ Brothers – they’ll have fun while learning at KidsAstronomy.com.

Visit the Animal Planet at Discovery.com. Learn about pets under the “Pets” tab, wild animals in the “Wild Animals” section, play games on the “Games” page. You can also watch videos, find out how things work and see animals in the news at Animal Planet Online.

This website on Habitats (or Biomes) is loaded with links to information and activities for every habitat.