Monday




Let me tell you something about Tyler. He likes activities that include words like Extreme, or Ultimate, and that also produce sudden rushes of adrenaline. And he's found something new.
Bug Collecting.
It all started with catching butterflies. It is surprisingly difficult to spot, follow, and catch a butterfly. They are fast. And they flutter and fly. Sam caught our first one, a Giant Swallowtail, in our backyard with a Ziploc bag.
We also have a neat collection of wasps. You've never seen wasps like these before. They help add that oh-so-necessary element of danger to the speed and excitement of bug collecting. Tyler is the only one who actually catches them.
And dragonflies. We have some dragonflies. They are one of the more smart and wary bugs. It's true.
I've got to say, for the more entomologically-aware or you, that we know that the actual "collection" of insects is frowned upon these days. (collect, euthanize, harvest, kill - synonyms) But we do it anyway. We only "gather" (syn.) one of each species, we freeze them to "render them lifeless", (syn.) we thaw them to pin them, and keep them in a shadow box in our livingroom. And we learn from them. The kids learn all kinds of, you know, good things from looking at, comparing, identifying, drawing, and reading about these creatures.
Plus we're just rebels like that.













The pictures aren't adrenaline filled - I can't keep up with Tyler like that. But they are cute. And, plus, also, Tyler made our nets for way cheap all by himself, including the sewing.

4 comments:

Real said...

Oooooooooo! Pinkleberry would LOVE to come bug collecting with you. Well, she might not understand the whole "collecting" thing yet, but she does love to chase them and point them out.

What a neat family activity!

Peg Lewis said...

Glorious!

(Where's a good throbbing-heart icon when you need one?)

Can you take a photo of your shadow boxes?

You should join Helium and write on the children's activities pages etc.... I'll send you an invitation.

:)

trogonpete said...

that looks like sweetwater wetlands.

it's pretty odd, but I'm pretty into bugs right now too. I even "collected" one for the first time since grade school about two weeks ago. [the june bug on our blog post about the trip] Only, I didn't succeed and just made the thing drunk instead of dead. I even have a whole three species of insects that I can identify now. Pretty spectacular, eh?

you guys should come to CR with us. there will be LOTS of bugs!

E loves bugs too. We're coming right over!

trogonpete said...

and, just so you know, I was the one who caught that lizard on our blog. That's the first lizard I've ever grabbed myself. You should be proud of me, if I were, you know, 3 or something.