Margot made such an impression on Hannah, that every plant in our yard and garden has since been heavily scrutinized, wondering if this is the perfect plant to attract even more bugs to our yard. Even the purple flowers Hannah picked out this spring (and assured me she could not live without) received a very disapproving look after learning that they may not be a bee's favorite type of flower. "Why do we even have these in our yard?!" she exclaimed! "We need to grow different flowers, Ma Ma!" (I actually thought she was about to yank them up root and all she was so disgusted with the thought of them wasting valuable space!)
When I mentioned that the reason Margot knew so much about insects was because she had gone to school to become an entomologist, Hannah was ecstatic.
"I can't wait until I go to school," she says while jumping up and down. "Then I can know all about bugs, just like Margot!"
"Well, sadly, Kindergarten doesn't really focus on bugs so much. You have to be a little older and go to a different kind of school in order to be an entomologist," I said.
"When can I go to that school? Like when I'm 7? Or when I'm 8?"
"Well, it will be a while. You'll be almost grown up before you can go to this kind of school."
Hannah stared at me blankly, not fully understanding why she had to wait to study the things she loved most ... or maybe she was confused as to why she would still be going to school after the age of 8 - after all, you are practically a grown up at 8! Disheartened, she crouched back down in the grass and continued her search for more insects. After a bit, she popped back up and said in a rather disgusted tone, "If I don't learn about bugs when I go to school, what DO I learn?"
Up until this point, Hannah has been SO excited to go to school, this change of heart kind of caught me off guard. I rattled off things like learning how to read, learning how things work and why and studying different parts of the world ... but I might as well have been talking to all of her treasured beetles and mosquitoes she was lugging around in her bug house. Clearly this was not an impressive list in her view. So I trudged on ...
"You'll also learn lots of fun songs to sing, make new friends ..."
I wasn't making any headway with these items either. It wasn't long before Hannah had turned her full attention back on the grass and all of its tiny inhabitants.
Then it hit me. "Ooh! AND ... you'll do lots of fun art projects!" Surely art had to change her mind and get her back to being excited about going to school! If anything competes with bugs, it's art. Personally, I think it's whatever gets her messy!
But even with the promise of brand new art projects, Hannah remained silent and kept poking a stick in and out of the blades of grass. After a few minutes, she stood up, placed her hands on her hips and said, "How about I go to school to learn how to read so I can read books about bugs all by myself, and then I'll go to school with Margot."
Relieved the education system hadn't disappointed her completely, I agreed that was a very good idea indeed.
Now, if only she were a bit taller so she could reach those spiders on the ceiling for me - that would be my little slice of heaven!
Here's to hoping she learns a few more things along the way, and in another 15+ years, she follows her dream of becoming an entomologist! In the interim, we're trying our hand at raising eight Cecropia caterpillars we got from Margot. They will turn into gigantic, beautiful moths next spring. This now brings our pet list (not including our snails, slugs, ladybugs and other joyous creatures we keep housed outside) up to 13, and Hannah and Addi are plotting for more each and every day. The feeding schedule alone somewhat terrifies me if we go any further! ;)
Happy bug hunting!
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