Chase and his neighborhood friend, Omar, have been diligently trying to catch a bee for the last couple of weeks. A couple of times, I warned them that the sting was going to hurt! On Sunday, April 11, 2010, Chase and Omar began the quest once again. I had given them a medium-sized plastic terrarium with a removable green lid. The green lid also has a small plastic flap that can be lifted up for the addition/removal of items without removing the green lid.
First, Chase came running into the house to ask for honey.
Chase: "Can I get some honey?"
Mom: "Really, what for?"
Chase: "To eat."
Mom: [looking at Chase in disbelief because he will not eat honey] "Try again, why?"
Chase: "Okay, to catch a bee."
Mom: "Okay, you have 1 minute to use the honey and get it back in the house. 1-2-3"
Chase takes off running. He immediately returns to bring honey back.
I decided to go outside to have a look at what they were doing. They put some honey in the terrarium with the green lid on and with the flap standing up (leaving an opening on top of the lid). They placed the terrarium in some boxwood bushed that border our property line with the neighbor and bees are frequently seen flying around these bushes. Chase and Omar are lying on the ground with long sticks, waiting for a bee to fly into the terrarium and then they would push the flap closed with the sticks. They gave up after a couple of minutes with no success and ran off to do other things.
A little while later, I suggested to the boys that bees made honey from the pollen they gathered from flowers. This prompted them to gather flowers to put inside the terrarium along with the honey. They ran around the house and pulled off pink azalea flowers from a bush in our front yard. They placed the flowers in the terrarium and this time put the terrarium in the middle of our side yard with the little flap open. (This is an open grassy and sunny area which is fairly small.) The boys left this in the side yard for much longer without catching a bee.
A little later, I noticed the boys inspecting the terrarium and noting that they had not been able to catch a bee. They then picked up the terrarium and placed it upside down on a metal pole that extends well above the fencing in the yard. (This pole has been quite the source of poking, prodding, and hitting with sticks over the last couple of weeks...Chase and Omar believe a bee's nest is inside the pole. We have noticed an occasional bee around the pole but there is not visual evidence that a nest exists.) Omar stated they would wait for a bee to fly in the terrarium and then try to close the lid.
A little later, Dad enters the picture (arriving home from work). I mentioned to Dad that Chase and Omar were trying to catch a bee so he goes over to inspect the terrarium. There is a bee inside!! Dad slowly lifts the terrarium off the poll and closed the flap. When the boys come back around, we tell them the good news.
Chase: You are AWE----SOME! Now, we need to build it a habitat.
They spend the next 20 minutes collecting more flowers, grass, and twigs that are dropped into the terrarium for the bee habitat.
Reflection: I find it fascinating that they boys self-initiated this exploration. I had reminded then that bee's sting and it hurts, but they were determined to catch a bee. They tried different ideas, when those did not work, they tried something else, until they were successful.
