The kids and their bugs

I few nights ago I got up to let the dog out, and there on the wall was a slug. It's a testament to the kids that my first thought was not, Exterminator! Help! but Cool! I'll just pop this little feller in the handy-dandy bug jar the kids pre-packed at bedtime. 

Millipede

Yes, pre-packed. The day before we had been catching millipedes, and Vincent was quite distraught that we had to release his new pet at nightfall. So he packed his bug jar full of celery leaves and lettuce in eager anticipation of bug-hunting the next morning. I guess he figured it'd save time, because, you know, Mommy would be so darn keen to run out the door and find some bugs.

Holding cicadas

Alas. Morning came a little earlier than either of us expected when I saw the slug at 2 a.m. I scooped him into the jar and went back to bed.

I guess the kids have rubbed off on me. When we see a bug, never do I hear "Yuck!" or "Ew!" Quite the opposite. Dead or alive, the kids -- as do most kids -- have a fascination with the little creatures. I can't count how many books we've read about insects. Vincent is quick to point out the arthropods and to tell me how to figure out the number of legs on a millipede, and Catherine won't allow her bike passage if she spies a caterpillar crossing the sidewalk. No, she has to dismount, find a leaf, and very gently carry the caterpillar to safety. The first thing Dominic does when we go outside is examine the pine trees for cicada shells, and if he finds one he runs to Vincent holding it and hollering "BUG! BUG!"

The kids were so interested in slugs that we performed a Slug Hunt by watering down gravel and placing a tarp on it overnight so we could catch the critters. Then Catherine composed a whole book on slugs, illustrating and writing it herself. Raise your hand if you knew that slugs and snails were related to the octopus!

What I love about this is not just the kids aren't squeamish around bugs, or that they are curious about nature, but that their gentleness and awe shows a sound respect for these squishy little things. I think -- I hope -- that in this awe, they are recognizing bugs as some of the smallest of God's creation, and treating them as such.