Ladybugs

This post was resurrected from last summer. I don’t know why it was still in draft form.
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Grace and Evelyn just love ladybugs. We bought about 300 of them for the garden and they love to pick them up & bring them back to the tomatoes every chance they get. grace is the official ladybug relocation specialist. She picks them up carefully, talks to them a bit, to reassure them that it’s safe, then places them gently on a new leaf. Evelyn just looks at them. When we first got them, Gabriella ran into the house jumping around like she had the heebie jeebies (or is it the creepy crawlies? If you ever do this, don’t wear white) She told me there were ladybugs everywhere “but I think they’re all off of me, now.” So I asked her to turn around and there were about 12 of them crawling in all different directions on her back. Anyhow, the ladybugs are feasting on whatever critters were in the garden. I figure if they ever run out of food they can zip over to the roses. Buying bugs seems kind of silly but they were less than $5 and I figure I can call it an educational expense, right? On the living room table, I have placed several ladybug coloring pages I printed, books about insects and even a few plastic toy ladybugs. I can’t wait until they come inside, they’re going to love it. I’ve always wanted to decorate a ladybug bedroom.

BTW- in “unschooling language” the act of strategically placing materials and activities that help kids develop their interests is called “strewing” It’s sort of like pre-school “learning centers” except kids have free and unlimited access to the materials to explore in a way that they see fit.