Sorry, didn't mean to leave dad's out of this...my bad. I should have called it 'parents and worms', but that didn't really sound right, 'kids and worms' didn't either.

I sent my first offshoot colony to my fiances colleague's wife in a Folgers Coffee plastic thing. (Yes, once I have a job ill be buying Fair Trade coffee!)

Theyre just about deep enough to try composting in (well, a little bit!) and dark ( red) and the lids are snap on, and the plastic is thin enough you can stab and twist a steak knife for airholes (Kids, ask an adult for help!)

no kids of my own yet....

Been there, done that with the Cub Scouts. Two things: make sure that the bins are all EXACTLY the same, otherwise many fights and hard feelings. I just bought the things at the 99cent store, but if you can't, find something you can get 8 of. Spray paint works fine, of course on the outside only.

Second, make this a multi week project, or most of the worms will get dumped and die. The first week, make one bin and show them how it is done. Take some time to teach them how to keep worms alive and how useful they can be. Little boys like slimy things, but girls may need some confidence building. The next meeting, make the bins and get them started with torn paper, compost and a little food. The third meeting, add the worms and again go over the care and feeding.

It has been seven years since I did this, and at least two of the bins are still going. Don't try to rush it and you'll make converts, not just entertain them for an hour.

Good luck,

Dick

You might want to carefully consider actually having the kids make their own bins. Some parents might not really want to have them...

The birthday party we did for my daughter was fun. It was for 4 year olds, and the kids really loved it. They wrapped her presents in old newspaper. The first part of the party was craft time and each child painted a little plant pot. After we had some games and cake (dirt cake with gummy worms) we opened gifts and the kids got to shred the wrapping paper (newspaper) so we could set up a new bin. After the new bin was ready, I started sifting castings and worms from the old bin and putting the worms and chunks of stuff into the new bin. The kids got to take handfuls of castings to their tables to look through and pick out cocoons and worms to return to the new bin. When they were tired of that we used the castings in potting soil to plant a flower. It might have been fun want to have them plant a sunflower seed or something instead of a plant, but I purchased zinias for them. They got to take their plant home with them. It was especially cute to see the little girls in their dresses playing with the worms.

For the vermicomposting workshop I invited my MOMS club. I let them know that if they were interested in setting up a bin of their own I would supply the worms and help them set it up, but they were to bring the bin with holes in it. Most of the moms were more interested in seeing the process, but we did set up one bin. She brought the two rubbermaid totes so we could do the setup where you put holes in the smaller one and set it into the larger one. (She didn't drill the holes, but I had my drill handy and we got it set up pretty quickly.) Everyone who came brought old newspapers and the kids shredded the paper for me by hand. I usually do it with a shredder, but the hands on work was fun for the kids. They also got to help me wet the paper down, squeeze out the extra water, and fluff it up for the new bed. I had a table where I had dumped a bunch of castings and worms so it could dry out some. I let the kids dig through the pile and see what they could find and asked them to put the worms in one of my other bins. They also got to collect worms for the new bin. I sifted some of the castings so I could show everyone what the finished product was like. The moms were all amazed that what started out as newspaper and food scraps ended up looking like black soil. All in all it was a success. The kids loved the worms and the moms learned alot. A couple of them are now interested in starting their own bins. I wish I had thought to take pictures, but unfortunately I didn't. The least wonderful part of the project was that it was rainy and we had to all stuff into the garage. There were about 10 moms and 20 kids, so it would have been much easier in the backyard.

Good luck on your project. Don't forget to take pictures!!!

Mariann