Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

That was the title of the presentation being done at the Pine Tree State Arboretum in Augusta today. It's about a 1-1/2 hour drive for us but I decided we needed a break from home so off we went. (I also needed something at Michael's & it's the closest one to me.... LOL) We arrived & thankfully they had room for us. Apparently we were suppose to register but the paper only said to call for more info.

Okay, so you would think that a presentation on bugs would be perfect for this homeschooling Mom of three boys. Well, you would be wrong. My two oldest aren't all that thrilled with knowing bugs up close & personal. I think N has just taken after B in this regard since J (the 3 year old) has no such hang ups.

The presenter works for the Maine Forest Service & is an entomologist with them. It was pretty interesting to listen to her talk & see the things she brought to share including a number of pieces of wood that had been eaten by bugs. Although, I do have to say that the highlight was watching a fox cross the field from the classroom window. ::grin::

J peeking around the post that had been eaten by carpenter ants.

She had brought with her some Vietnamese walking sticks. VERY cool. And no, they are not wooden walking sticks as some thought (you know who you are!!! ::big grin::) but large insects that look like twigs. They are bigger than the Maine variety & they also live longer. The Vietnamese version can live for 12-18 months. They are can produce asexually & she only had females so will only get females. The only way to get a male is to mate a male & female together & apparently males are very rare. The Maine ones hatch in spring & die the same fall. They are also smaller.

B didn't want it anywhere near him. N started to cry when she started walking around with it. I grabbed my camera for the photo op & J wanted to pet it. ::grin:: You can see how the rest of the time was going to go, right?

From here we went in to the next room where she had all kinds of insects laid out for close inspection. The children were given magnifying glasses & each group was given a set of tweezers so we could turn them over. Now, I will admit that insects are NOT my top priority of fun things to touch. However, I had no issue with all these dead ones. My kids did though! N wouldn't go near the table. B was hiding behind me. J was going around checking them all out & having a fabulous time of it.

We did go back to the original classroom & N finally got in to it. He LOVED all the dead bugs UNDER the glass. She had some very nice displays I must say they were very cool to look at.

I finally gave in to their nagging complaints to leave after this point. Oh & Michael's was redoing their scrapbooking section & had virtually nothing on their shelves - certainly not what I was looking for. J fell asleep shorter after this. I was going to go visit my sister to make the trip worthwhile but didn't want to wake the sleeping child. We made a quick run through the McDonald's drive-through & headed home. J never woke up & never did get his McDonald's.