Hannah the Zoologist

Hannah loves animals, especially cold-blooded ones. For the past several weeks, she has spent hours nearly every day poring over two books I recently purchased: National Audubon Society field guide to North American Butterflies and National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders. She sits and reads the name of every bug she sees and studies its appearance under a magnifying glass so she can absorb all of the details.

When we were camping, she informed me that the bugs another little girl had caught were common water skimmers, and she was correct! She also can tell me the names of many different ants and butterflies and even scorpions. In fact, she told me that her favorite bug is a scorpion... shudder!

In addition to her love of all things creepy and crawly, Hannah has a remarkable knack for catching these specimens as well. Moths, butterflies, millipedes, caterpillars, crayfish, and other invertebrates inevitably end up in her little grasp for further study. She even had a tiny butterfly land daintily on her outstretched finger and remain perched there for a few minutes before fluttering away.

We visited my parents' cabin this spring just in time for the tent caterpillars to hatch, and we caught hundreds during our stay. I think my grandmother cringed every time she saw Hannah with the insects crawling all over her arms and hands.

Because of her fascination with bugs, she learned two new vocabulary words during our camping trip, and she has been using them appropriately: exoskeleton and endoskeleton. We had been planning our insects and spiders unit for the spring... but I think we may tackle it now. I'd hate to waste this time of interest just because I want to stick to a schedule!