Found a Venus flytrap plant in IKEA, and the homeschooling parent in me got pretty excited
I had a child free afternoon, so decided to make a trip to Ikea (what a mom, I know) for nostalgic reasons. We used to live 10 mins away from this Ikea before we moved out of London, this branch has a really family friendly set up, so we always loved going there.
As I was browsing the plant section, I saw they had Venus flytraps and knew the girls would love one. I got super excited about all the learning opportunities this plant can bring, and not just for the kids, for me too ;)
A Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that can eat insects, how great and educational will that be, to observe as a process. In a way, it's pretty crazy and amazing that carnivorous plants exist. It'll be great for the girls to learn to care for a new plant/pet as well!
I love that our kids learn in "unconventional" ways, we want to keep things fun for them, because we want to nurture their love for learning in a relaxed and engaging way that works for us as a family. Hoping this'll be a nice fun way to inspire a curiosity in Botany/plant science, might even spark an interest for us to start a project on weird plants, we'll see :)
Definitely a great and fun way to learn about plants! We've had one for a couple of months and it's been great. It's recently sent up a stem with a flower (not flowered yet).
We've even 'fed' it insects!
We've been feeding it dead bugs we've found around the house, but don't think the plant likes those very much! So fun to watch them close up though :)
Yeah they don't really accept dead ones. They have to feel the hairs triggered once closed to make sure they have an insect. Otherwise the insect might have escaped and the plant would waste its energy trying to consume nothing.
If you find live ones and try to get them in, it's more fun! And challenging!! ;)
LOVE IKEA - HATE THOSE PLANTS :P xD
When you come visit, I'll be sure to put it near your bed then haha :P love you really ;)
They're cool, but tough to keep alive! I had a few as a kid and they never lasted long, they need a lot of humidity.
Ah thanks for the tip.. we'll see how long ours lasts :)
I had one of these when I was a kid, the poor plant just keep catching my fingers and never insects though :)
Ha cool! I think my girls will love that actually!
Lovely to see you take so much pleasure from a simple plant and for thinking about how you might use it @redrica.
Hope it thrives! 😊
Do they grow on africa, I would love to have one cause I have never seen a carnivorous plant before
They should be able to, you can buy the seeds and try to grow some!
Ok . Thanks