The Circle of Life-- A Hard Lesson

Jillian has been out in the field colleting bugs. She takes Lizzie and Erin, cousins Sydey and Sammy, and sometimes Kurt is in on the action. First they caught a grasshopper. Jillian did a bunch of internet research on the insect, and classified it as a "nymph with wings". They collected lettuce from the garden and cabbage from the fridge for it's food, and made it a home with grass and sticks in a bug-catcher (caddy with a screen). They observed the grasshopper "nibbling" it's food and sunbathing. The kids thought it was a darling little thing.

The next bug they found was praying mantis. It is a cool looking creature--about 1 1/2 inches long and white in color. It has been interesting to watch. If the kids got too close to it, they found the mantis would "swipe" back. They made it's home out of a tin box with grass and sticks and a hollowed paper cup. Jillian researched and found it is a "meat-eater", so she went to the hay field and collected aphids. This morning they watched the praying mantis eat the aphids!

Kurt caught a beautiful Monarch butterfly this morning. There was no place to put the butterfly to observe it, so the kids moved the grasshopper to the praying mantis' tin, and put the butterfly in the bug-catcher caddy. It was fun to watch the butterfly for a while (I made them release it because it was too pretty to be confined in a cage).

This afternoon I heard an agonizing scream. It was Jillian--she was horrified because her darling pet grasshopper was being devoured by the praying mantis. I am trying to explain to the girls how the praying mantis is helpful, because it eats the bugs that eat our vegetables in the garden....but all I get is anger from them.

Oh, the circle of life is a hard lesson to learn!