June 1, 2005 - Wednesday
Harry caught a butterfly today. Actually, it was a moth, but I think it's still pretty impressive that a five-year-old was able to get close enough to either to catch it and did have the far too common reaction to try to squash it. Of course, it is something we've talked about many times and Harry has always been interested in nature.

As he's gotten older, Harry has also become very gentle with little creatures and has picked up several caterpillars, always being careful and eventually letting them go.

Sure, there have been a few times when he's made some comment about capturing one for his museum or putting one in a jar like he saw someone at school do. But it's never been very hard to dissuade him of those ideas. He understands that, like flowers once picked, little animals would probably not survive very long in a jar. They much prefer their own homes outside. He'll always let them go. And much to my delight, he seems pretty overt about trying to teach his classmates to be gentle with animals, too.

Jeremy, arguably the gentler of our two boys, is much more likely to squash a caterpillar, spider, or other small thing. I'm pretty sure that's because it's what he's seem Mary do fairly often. Seems quite a gentle person, but is a rather sterotypical female about creepy crawly creatures.


Comments, Opinions?