Children's Activity Suet & Seeds to Feed the Bird

Suet is beneficial for birds and a favorite of  nuthatches, woodpeckers, wrens, chickadees, cardinals, and most insect-eating birds.  (Almanac, 2014)

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I purchased chopped Suet from the Grocery Store @ $4.95 a bag this bowl has 4 bags in it

In the winter it provides the necessary fat that is hard to find as insects become hard to find.  In spring is provides birds with the increased energy they needs to build nest and lay eggs.  In the fall suet helps that birds store fat for the winter migration.   

Bird seed is from the Co-op $9.95

 Your suet ornaments should be located at least 5 feet off the ground to prevent other animals for eating them and near the trunk of a tree. (Foster & Smith, 2014)  Once the birds discover your suet decorations they will eat it quickly so here is a hint if the suet remains untouched for too long move it.

Many wild birds require fat to keep them healthy over the winter and suet is a good way of providing this.

You will need:

• A bowl
• Cookie cutters  (it maybe because we used chopped suet or because we were impatient our cookie cutters ornaments did not hold together at all)
• Bird seeds of any kind
• Suet

Directions:

 Mix the suet and birdseed

using a wax paper covered cookie sheet

 place your cookie cutter on the wax paper and fill it with the suet seed mixture

 As stated previously our cookie cutters did not work so we tried two other ways.
#1 We but the suet seed mixture into plastic bags and worked them into balls

#2 We put the seed into peat flower pots 

Place these in the freezer until they are hard

 Once our suet was hard we removed the peat covering and tied yarn around the winter treat and hung it outside.

 Our suet balls worked out about 50% of the time if the children did not work the ball in the plastic enough the suet fell apart.

See how many different birds come to your suet feeder.  All was not lost though we put the loose suet and seeds into the bottoms of clay pots and placed these in our fruit trees and we had birds feeding off the suet within an hour.

See how many different birds come to your suet feeder.

Grandma Snyder

© 2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Almanac. (2014). Bird Food Recipe: Suet. Retrieved from The Old Farmer's Almanac: http://www.almanac.com/content/bird-food-recipe-suet

Foster, & Smith. (2014, January 2). Suet Feeder Overvivew. Retrieved from Doctors Foster and Smith: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=1263

Keeping Children Safe on the Internet

Part one Computers and Tablets

There have been big news stories in the last year about children who have committed suicide because of internet bullying. What are some of the things we can do to keep our grandchildren safe while they use the internet?

Keeping our children safe takes two forms: teaching or instructing children on how to use the internet and being genuinely interested in your child’s use of the internet.

Microsoft’s web page Teach kids online security basics starts by discussing the need to teach children to keep their passwords private – private even from their friends but not their parents.     

 

Click here to visit Protecting your kids with Family Safety

Microsoft also provides information on how to store passwords, and provides information on how internet predators attempt to get passwords and other personal information.  This information is important to anyone who is new to the internet - as a grandparent I learned great deal.

All of the authorities on internet safety recommend that parents establish rules around internet usage and as a grandparent you need to establish the rules for your house:

1)    When children can be online – all sites encourage parents to ensure that their children do not use the internet after parents have gone to bed as this is often when predators seek out their victims this may mean parents/grandparents keep cell phones overnight.

2)  All internet usage happen in public areas in the home.  This is hard in the smartphone age!

3)   Never provide personal information 

4)  Never  arrange to meet with someone they met on the internet

5)   Communicate on social networks with only people they know off the internet

6)  Rules around what websites can be visited. Set age limits for joining social networking sets. Parents have passwords to such sites, depending on age of the child? These rules will reflect individual family values and child vulnerabilities.

 

Source

The National Centre For Missing &Exploited Children provides parents and grandparents with topics and questions that we can ask children about their internet usage without scaring them.

1)    Ask your child about the sites that they visit, what they find interesting about the site and then spend some time letting them show you around these site.

2)  Ask them about the social networking sites that they visit, who they are speaking with.  

3)   Be interested in what your child is interested in.

I would also like to direct you to the website In the Heart of my Home and their article on Screen Rules this article is well worth your time to read.

In the Heart of my Home: Screen Rules

 In part two on internet safety we will look at smart phones. 

I am not an expert on internet safety please visit the two websites provided, and keep your children safe on the internet.

 Teach kids online security basics

and

Basic Internet Safety

 Grandma Snyder

Microsoft. (2014). Teach kids online security basics. Retrieved from Microsoft Safety & Security Center: http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/childsafety-internet.aspx

National Centre For Missing & Exploited Children. (2014). Basic Internet Safety. Retrieved from National Centre For Missing & Exploited Children: http://www.netsmartz.org/internetsafety

© 2013-2015 twosnydergirls