About ants, snails and earthworms....

Its Spring here in Hotlanta and with temperatures in the eighties and quite a few wet days, there have been a lot of outdoor creatures on the yard, the deck and some venturing right into our house.

This spring Little Bear is spending a lot of time outdoors and has emerged into this bold and curious little boy who loves nature but much to our chagrin has a a nasty habit of 'crushing down' ants, snails and earthworms.

But why? I ask him everytime he proudly proclaims that he stamped a fire ant. "Oh! because it may bite me" is his response. Yesterday, when I picked him from school he said ..."Amma! I crushed up a snail shell..Buts its ok, the snail was not in the shell." A quick zoology lesson followed where I explained that a snail always carries its shell around with it because it is like its house. "But Amma, I'm sure the snail was not in the shell when I crushed it into pieces"

Later that evening after a fresh downpour, we went outside to see earthworms. I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach him to respect other living things and let them be. We got on our hands and knees to see the earthworms lazily crawl around. When one of them came too close to him, he threatened to stamp it. Frustrated I tried to explain with another angle - this earthworm is going back to its mother and we must let it do that, I said. He gave me a quizzical look and said -"No, this earthworm does not have a mother. Its independent" Not sure if he says that because he knows so or just because he wants to have a counter-argument about everything I say ..

Needless to say, in the coming weeks we hope to try our best to teach him the valuable lesson of respecting all other living things.