Have you ever . . .

[gandpsmommy]

had ladybugs taped to your kitchen cabinets because ds is trying to see if they will fossilize?

had pine needles taped to your bedroom wall and acorns placed on your dresser because ds wants to help you decorate your room like the forest?

Oh, he's such a sweet little guy. And he loves nature. I can't bring myself to take down the pine needles yet:), but the ladybugs kind of freaked me out.

[Wendy in ME]

No but have you ever tucked in your ds and found cuddled up with a jar of grasshoppers or checked on him in the tub to find him with a tadpole?

[Calming Tea]

found your 6yo ds hooking up a lightbulb, various metal pieces , copper wires and DC inverter into an outlet and saying, "See mom! The lightbulb is on!" while sparks fly?

[MelissaMinNC]

No, and I must say, I am now a little more frightened of what my ds (3) is going to be like in the next couple of years.

(I did however find him standing on the kitchen counter with no chair in sight yesterday. No idea how he climbed up there....eeeekkkk!)

Is this a boy thing? My dd (6) is little miss nature girl, but I've still never caught her with a tadpole, LOL.

:)
Melissa

[Donna T.]

My sons do things like that. I recently came home and my oldest son had removed a dresser drawer, put it on the front porch, and filled it with dirt. When I asked what was going on, he said he was making a habitat for roley-polies. I made him put the good drawer back and take out a plastic one from a Rubbermate cabinet. He is all about nature.

Now, my youngest is more into contraptions, taking things apart, and making sparks fly. For over a year, we were constantly battling his impulse to remove our exterior door knobs! We literally had holes in our house for a long time!

They are hilarious. I let them do just about anything as long as it's not too dangerous. Awhile back, I had a young friend who was coming over weekly to help me with house work. She was always amazed at what I let the children do. She told me that she had never been in a home like ours! I took that as a compliment!

[neesek]

Those are too funny! I currently have Magnetix sticking out of my wall because my ds went on a quest to find the studs in the wall by using the magnets to find the screws. I now have patterns of 2 magnetix spaced at 15 inch intervals across the wall. At least they are up high where my toddler can't get them.

[Jenstet]

Mine have not taped the ladybugs but have made a ladybug house with paper towel rolls and little boxes tapes to the window. The ladybugs get bored you know....

[Jenny in Atl]

Dd7 is a nature lover. We have all sorts of dead and fossilized things, bugs, frogs, skeletons of small animals, :eek:. We also have a bunch of living things ranging from fish and lizards to the family dog. I have learned to let go and let in, within reason, outside inside. It's just so much a part of who she is, I did not want to crush that passion, her interest in the natural world.

[Isa]

I've put my children's interest in nature to work. In our previous house we used to get grasshoppers in our house quite frequently, and my sons would capture them and take them outside.

In the house we are in now, we once found a mouse drowned in a pan in our sink. I asked my sons if they wanted to dispose of the mouse, and they were actually arguing over who was going to do it! I was relieved that I didn't have to do it!

[Lori D.]

... Have surprised me with experiments like filling a *glass* jar with water and putting it in the freezer (explodes with a muffled "pop" while you're eating dinner and then mom spend the rest of her evening taking everything out of the freezer and cleaning up the glass slivers!!)

Also have a nature lover here, who kept trying to get me to allow him to adopt and name wooly worms. : )

[Calming Tea]

one time while staying at my sister's house babysitting I found a dead rat on the back patio, I literally screamed, entering backwards into the back door, ran through the house, and through the front door, I was so upset. But I realized I had to do something about her two 100lb dogs who were now very interested in whatever was going on! I could just see them picking it up and dragging it into the house!

So my 9 year old nephew got rat duty. There was no way I could do it. He put it in the garbage and then it was after it was in there that I realized it would stink by the time trash day came around again!

Luckily my sister is *so* patient with my craziness, and didn't say much about her stinking garbage. :p

[gandpsmommy]

Dd7 is a nature lover. We have all sorts of dead and fossilized things, bugs, frogs, skeletons of small animals, :eek:. We also have a bunch of living things ranging from fish and lizards to the family dog. I have learned to let go and let in, within reason, outside inside. It's just so much a part of who she is, I did not want to crush that passion, her interest in the natural world.


I have learned to do this too. He is so interested in the natural world. We have had all sorts of little animals and insects. And he loves to drag in sticks, rocks, fossils, pine cones, acorns, etc. And he often conducts his own little science "experiments" which usually involve a lot of water. It is very much a part of who he is, and we definitely accept it.