• Sep. 27, 2006 - Why does that ant want to get out?
Seb has taken a definite interest in the bug life around our home. We have a beautiful spider that he named Charlotte(guess where he got THAT name!?)...camped outside of our back door all summer. We have watched her building and rebuilding her web, catching her prey and eating it, and looked at her web with rain and dew on it.
He has collected a dragonfly, cicada, honey bee, pill bug, and yellow jacket, all ensconced in an old baby wipe box, lined with kleenex. He picks them up to show friends, and can name them all.
We have watched butterflies all summer coming to our overgrown garden, with an overabundance of milkweed...so we had many monarchs this year, in addition to the other flutterbyes. He was in tears when one came by and he didn't come out fast enough to see it, but he is thrilled when we find one on our walks, and tells everyone what it is, and follows it as long as he is able.
Our newest aquisition is a bug house, which came with a small domed object, with a maze in it. He caught a carpenter ant, and put him in the maze, where we put a small piece of bread for food. The ant really didn't understand the object of the maze, he probably was really too large for it...he could walk over all of the blockades, and climbed all over the top of the dome. Seb told me that the ant didn't want to run into walls, so he just climbed over them. We kept that ant for about 1 1/2 hours(yes, the dome has air holes) and he never stopped to eat his bread, or to rest. The entire time, he tried to escape. Seb was trying to make sense of it. Why wasn't he happy? Why didn't he eat? and most important, why couldn't we just let him out anywhere?
So we discussed the fact that ants will kill any stranger that comes into their nesting area, because they are invaders. He wasn't happy because he wasn't able to do his job of gathering food for his family. He couldn't take time to eat, he had to get back to his job. Seb understood that the ant loved his family, because he fed them, and helped to take care of them. He was sad that the ant was so intent on leaving the maze, but he knew that he could not keep him any longer. We let the ant go into our garden, next to the driveway where he had been found. Seb put down the piece of bread next to him, and said that maybe he could bring it back to his home.
Altogether, it was a successful lesson. Next, he wants to catch a night bug, to examine it. His flashlight is ready, and so is his magnifying cup....May all our lessons be this easy!
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