Bird and Moon, you’ve done it again, you have just described me on ‘vacation’
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#raturin #scorpiones #platypus #wombat
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Telling the truth, I only knew about the crash because I was told.
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You’ve moved from “argh, there’s a spider in that leaf!” (with annexed scream) to “look, there’s a spider in that leaf!” (with an eager tone).
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Well, our daughter and granddaughter flew in for the weekend and my husband’s retirement party! Yeh, he’s all mine now and I got him interested in dragonfly hunting. Now he nets a bee or something in our yard, takes a picture and asks me “if I have that bug?”
Our granddaughter enjoyed the backyard stream we had installed so much! She played in there longer than anyone else! Looks like we’ll have to build another one when we move! That also means new and different bugs!!!
Anyway, grandchildren are so much fun to play with like we played with our children. Our daughter, now a mom to 4, approaches food differently. So, we bought a can of Reddi-wip and everyone knows what that’s for - spraying it in your mouth! So when Carolyn was in another room, I whispered to our granddaughter if she wanted to do something her mom did, yet “you can’t tell her.” Yet you know they’re going to tell anyway. So after filling her and my mouth up twice, she says, “Mama, come here I want to show you something!” Then I fill her mouth up again! 
I told our granddaughter that we bought it just for her, then my husband gets in the act also! She’s loving this, and her mom is looking at the ingredients. I told her that she never did that before. Her reply, “I was just a kid.” So, we’re all just bigger kids now!
Next I take our granddaughter up to show her my insect and spider collection stored in 7 Calif. Academy insect drawers in a cabinet. I showed her the pretty ones first - the few butterflies and moths I have, then the pretty and weird beetles, bees and smaller and larger insects. Then I tell her that her mom is terrified of spiders, so I promised myself that I won’t tell or show her my arachnids. So I show them to our granddaughter and even show her the biggest ones I have! Then I show her my jumping spiders, which are my favorites! Again I hear, “Mama, come here I want to show you something!” When our daughter enters the room, I said I wasn’t going to show you any spiders, and I even told your daughter not to either!” Well, she showed her mom the biggest ones I have and as she held up each vial containing a spider in alcohol, she said to look at each one. Surprisingly her mom looked! She said that she doesn’t mind as long as they’re not coming after her. I told her that I seriously doubt that any spider would run after you since they’re more afraid of you cuz you’re bigger! She doubted that a spider could be more afraid of her than she is of them.
The whole idea behind making an insect/spider collection was so our grandchildren could look closely at the insects they fear the most while I tell them why they won’t attack them. Plus humorous tidbits about the insects that they will remember longer probably.
I have always loved science since 6th grade and took more Math than was required (3yrs of Calculus) for my degree and all the Chemistry and Physics I could because that’s basically Calculus anyway. I took Calc. until it wasn’t fun anymore. So I want my grandchildren to have fun adventures with nature! They can do this by building bee homes for solitary bees, planting the flowers that will attract all bees and by not being afraid of bees, spiders and other stuff that they find in nature. I’m hoping that they will have a curiosity about nature like I did and still do. And learning stuff without knowing they’re learning! I told our 6 yr old granddaughter that her teachers are teaching her stuff and she completely denied it. I told her that teachers are sneaky that way! 
So, well I know that not all will settle down enough to enjoy nature much at their ages: 2 yrs, 6 yrs, and twins 11 yrs old cuz sports, piano and other outside activities aren’t giving them much time to themselves. We allowed our girls no more than 2sports/activities per quarter in grade school. My other daughter has 3 boys and they take every sport offered! I don’t know how they do it, yet sports has become more important then attending Sunday masses as we did as a family when they were younger. I wish they gave their kids something to believe in, yet it’s their choice.
(Cathy jumps off her soapbox and settles in a leather chair and opens one of many book in “her library” so she can have quiet time after the weekend.) We’re already enjoying retirement. He’s been at work for so long, it my turn to get him back, and I have plans!
So I’m really into iNat when I can use it to encourage our grandchildren to look at nature, cuz all they’re doing is walking all over it, without any thoughts as to what’s underfoot. I also use it to ID bugs and can let the children get a closer look at the things they’re scared of, yet I can help allay that fear so they are more comfortable outside. Unfortunately the younger boys in our other daughter’s family still prefers to squish the occasional bug they find. Boys will be boys.
Sorry so long! I hope this topic never closes!!!
-Me-
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I now have a pet jumping spider and those that I tell this to, know I’m completely “bonkers”!!! His name is Clemmons or Clemmi for short, he is a Maevia inclemens light phase. I read a lot and watched many videos before I created his enclosure and now he is fun to watch ambushing his prey!
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Aw! The detail!
@magazhu Nice, inspiration.
@ klyle161 - welcome to the forums.
…you upload old photos from six years ago…which has just been sitting on your hard drive
…you check iNat more than you check your social media accounts
…you want to be the first to ID a fish that hasn’t been ID’d to the species level
…you try to convince your colleagues’ to signup for iNat
…you create a Project just for your home island
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When inaturalist is your only social media account 
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Hello!
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LOL, Hello
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I’ve done that, now I’m trying to get my family to join too!
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hello
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… you go for a “quick” walk while on vacation/holiday and make only a “few” observations… only to realize later that what felt like 20 minutes and 5 observations was 60 minutes and 20 observations.
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When a heat wave hits your area and you’re more worried about local insect populations than yourself. I haven’t seen as many moths lately, I hope they’re doing okay… At least I have air conditioning!
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Yeah last summer we adopted a very feisty seven-legged bronze hopper (Helpis minitabunda) we saw around the house from time to time and called him Seven (of course).
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It’s my only one too
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… you purchase a new phone based solely on zoom photo quality & GPS accuracy.
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